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“ * I trust in Heaven they flogged and pickled yon,* said Cleveland, worn out of patience with tlie dull 
narrative of the peaceful Zetlander's poltroonery’, of w’hicli he seemed so w’ondrous little ashatne l. 
. . . . ‘Flog horses, and pickle beef,’ said Magnus; ‘ why, you have not the vanity to think that, with 
all your quarter-deck airs, you will make poor old neighbor Haagen ashamed that he was not kill d 
some scores of years since? . . * . Get ye along, get ye along to the sword-dance, that the atranirers 
that are amongst us may see that our hands and our weapons are not altogether unacquainted even 
yet.’ A dozen cutlasses, selected hastily from an old arm-chest, and w’hose rusted hue bespoke h(»\v 
ccldoni they left the sheath, armed the . aine number of young Zellanders, with whom mingled six 
maidens, led by Minna Troil.” — Tiifi Piratk, Part I. p. 191. 



IIow,’snul Xornn, ‘ dnre you use such bold language ? . . . They wlio speak to the Reimkennarmusl 
lower their voice to her before whom winds and waves hush both blastand l)iIlow. . . . And i.ow speak : 
what wouldst thou have of me ?’ * My daughter’s liealtli,’ replied Magnus, ‘ wliich no rclnedie^ have been 
al)!o to restore.’ ... * Sit down, all of you ; and thou, maiden,’ she said, addressing-Minna, * . it thou in 
that chair,’ pointing to the place she luul just left. . . . Minna moved with slow and tiemnlousst -p toward*" 
the rude seat thus indicateil to her. It was composed of stone, formed into some semblance i»f a chaii 
by the rough and unskilful hand of .some ancient Gothic artist/’— Tuk P^kaik, Part II. pp yi, 



•*1-. . - .-t- 











WAVEllLEY NOVELS 


LIBRARY EDITION. 


VOL. XII. 


THE PIEATE. 


Nothing in him 

But doth suffer a sea-change. 

TempesL 


r 


-1 \ • 




FROM TILE LAST REVISED EDITION, CONTAINING THE AUTnOR’8 
FINAL CORRECTIONS, NOTES, &0. 


PARKER’S EDITION. ^ 

- V , 

> J * . 

9 

BOB TON: 

PUBLISHED BY BAZIN & ELLSWORTH, 

13 WASHINGTON STREET. 





* 



PRINTE^D^'bV 

GEORGE C, RAND & AVERY. 




\ 


INTRODUCTION 


TO 

THE PIRATE. 


“ Quoth he, there was a ship." 

This brief preface may begin like the tale of the An- 
cient Mariner, since it was on shipboard that the author 
acquired the very moderate degree of local knowledge 
and information, both of people and scenery, which he has 
endeavoured to embody in the romance of the Pirate. 

In the summer and autumn of 1814, the author was 
invited to join a party of Commissioners for the Northern 
Light-House Service, who proposed making a voyage 
round the coast of Scotland, and through its various 
groups of islands, chiefly for the purpose of seeing the 
condition of the many lighthouses under their direction, — 
edifices so important, whether regarding them as benev- 
olent or political institutions. Among the commissioners 
who manage this important public concern, the sheriff 
of each county of Scotland which borders on the sea, 
holds ex-officio a place at the Board. These gentlemen 
act in every respect gratuitously, but have the use of an 
armed yacht, well found and fitted up, when they choose 
to visit the lighthouses. An excellent engineer, Mr 
Robert Stevenson, is attached to the Board, to afford the 
benefit of his professional advice. The author accom- 
panied this expedition as a guest ; for Selkirkshire, though 
it calls him Sheriff, has not, like the kingdom of Bohemia 
in Corporal Trim’s story, a seaport in its circuit, nor its 
magistrate, of course, any place at the Board of Commis- 
sioners, — a circumstance of little consequence where all 
were old and intimate friends, bred to the same profes- 


IXTRODUCTION TO 


lV 


sion, and disposea to accommodate each other in every 
possible manner. 

The nature of the important business which was the 
principal purpose of the voyage, was connected with the 
amusement of visiting the leading objects of a traveller’s 
curiosity ; for the wild cape, or formidable shelve, which 
requires to be marked out by a lighthouse, is generally 
at no great distance from the most magnificent scenery 
of rocks, caves, and billows. Our time, too, was at our 
own disposal, and, as most of us were fresh water sailors, 
we could at any time make a fair wind out of a foul one, 
and run before the gale in quest of some object of curiosity 
which lay under our lee. 

With these purposes of public utility and some personal 
amusement in view, we left the port of Leith on the 26th 
July, 1814, ran along the east coast of Scotland viewing 
its different curiosities, stood over to Zetland and Orkney, 
where we were some time detained by the wonders of a 
country which displayed so much that was new to us ; and 
having seen what was curious in the Ultima Thule of the 
ancients, where the sun hardly thought it worth while to 
go to bed, since his rising was at this season so early, we 
doubled the extreme northern termination of Scotland, 
and took a rapid survey of the Hebrides, where we found 
many kind friends. There, that our little expedition 
might not want the dignity of danger, we were favoured 
with a distant glimpse of what was said to be an American 
cruiser, and had opportunity to consider what a pretty 
figure we should have made had the voyage ended in our 
being carried captive to the United States. After visiting 
the romantic shores of Morven, and the vicinity of Oban, 
we made a run to the coast of Ireland, and visited the 
Giant’s Causeway, that we might compare it with Staffa, 
which we had surveyed in our course. At length, about 
the middle of September, we ended our voyage in the 
Clyde, at the port of Greenock. 

And thus terminated our pleasant tour, to which our 
equipment gave unusual facilities, as the ship’s company 
could foim a strong boat’s crew, independent of those who 


THE PIRATE. 


V 


might be left on board the vessel, which permitted us the 
freedom to land wherever our curiosity carried us. Let 
me add, while reviewing for a moment a sunny portion of 
my life, that among the six or seven friends who per- 
formed this voyage together, some of them doubtless of 
different tastes and pursuits, and remaining for several 
weeks on board a small vessel, there never occurred the 
slightest dispute or disagreement, each seeming anxious 
to submit his own particular wishes to those of his friends. 
By this mutual accommodation all the purposes of our 
little expedition were obtained, while for a time we might 
have adopted the lines of Allan Cunningham’s fine sea- 
song, 

" The world of waters was our home, 

And merry men were we !” 

But sorrow mixes her memorials with the purest re 
membrances of pleasure. On returning from the voyage 
which had proved so satisfactory, I found that fate had 
deprived her country most unexpectedly of a lady, quali- 
fied to adorn the high rank which she held, and who had 
long admitted me to a share of her friendship. The sub- 
sequent loss of one of those comrades who made up the 
party, and he the most intimate friend I had in the world, 
casts also its shade on recollections which, but for these 
embitterments, would be otherwise so pleasing. 

I may here briefly observe, that my business in this 
voyage, so far as 1 could be said to have any, was to 
endeavour to discover some localities which might be use- 
ful in the ‘‘ Lord of the Isles,” a poem with which I was 
then threatening the public, and was afterwards printed 
without attaining remarkable success. But as at the same 
time the anonymous novel of “ Waverley” was making its 
way to popularity, I already augured the possibility of a 
second effort in this department of literature, and I saw 
much in the wild islands of the Orkneys and Zetland, 
which I judged might be made in the highest degree inter 
esting, should these isles ever become the scene of a narra- 


VI 


INTRODUCTION TO 


live of fictitious events. I learned the history of Gow the 
pirate from an old sibyl, (the subject of a note, p. 265, 
note 1 7 of this volume,) whose principal subsistence was 
by a trade in favourable winds, which she sold to mari 
ners at Stromness. Nothing could be more interesting 
than the kindness and hospitality of the gentlemen of Zet- 
land, which was to me the more affecting, as several of 
them had been friends and correspondents of my father. 

I was induced to go a generation or two farther back, 
to find materials from which I might trace the features 
of the old Norwegian Udaller, the Scottish gentry having 
m general occupied the place of that primitive race, and 
their language and peculiarities of manner having entirely 
disappeared. The only difference now to be observed 
Detwixt the gentry of these islands, and those of Scotland 
in general, is, that the wealth and property is more equally 
divided among our more northern countrymen, and that 
there exists among the resident proprietors no men of very 
great wealth, whose display of its luxuries might render 
the others discontented with their own lot. From the 
same cause of general equality of fortunes, and the cheap- 
ness of living, which is its natural consequence, I found 
the officers of a veteran regiment who had maintained the 
garrison at Fort Charlotte in Lerwick, discomposed at the 
idea of being recalled from a country where their pay, 
however inadequate to the expenses of a capital, was fully 
adequate to their wants, and it was singular to hear natives 
of merry England herself regretting their approaching 
departure from the melancholy isles of the Ultima Thule. 

Such are the trivial particulars attending the origin of 
that publication, which took place several years later than 
the agreeable journey from which it took its rise. 

The state of manners which I have introduced in the 
romance, was necessarily in a great degree imaginary, 
though founded in some measure on slight hints, which, 
showing what was, seemed to give reasonable indication of 
what must once have been, the tone of the society m 
these sequestered but interesting islands. 


THE PIRATE. 


VII 


In one respect I was judged somewhat hastily, perhaps, 
when the character of Norna was pronounced by the 
critics a mere copy of Meg Merrilies. That I had fallen 
short of what I wished and desired to express is unques- 
tionable, otherwise my object could not have been so 
widely mistaken ; nor can I yet think that any person who 
will take the trouble of reading the Pirate with some atten- 
tion, can fail to trace in Norna, — the victim of remorse 
and insanity, and the dupe of her own imposture, her 
mind, too, flooded with all the wild literature and extrav- 
agant superstitions of the north, — something distinct from 
the Dumfries-shire gipsy, whose pretensions to supernat- 
ural powers are not beyond those of a Norwood prophet- 
ess. The foundations of such a character may be per- 
haps traced, though it be too true that the necessary 
superstructure cannot have been raised upon them, other- 
wise these remarks would have been unnecessary. There 
is also great improbability in the statement of Norna’s 
possessing power and opportunity to impress on others 
that belief in her supernatural gifts which distracted her 
own mind. Yet, amid a very credulous and ignorant 
population, it is astonishing what success may be attained 
by an impostor, who is, at the same time, an enthusiast. 
It is such as to remind us of the couplet which assures us 
that 

The pleasure is as great 
In being cheated as to cheat.” 

Indeed, as I have observed elsewhere, the professed 
explanation of a tale, where appearances or incidents of 
a supernatural character are referred to natural causes, 
has often, in the winding up of the story, a degree of 
improbability almost equal to an absolute goblin narrative. 
Even the genius of Mrs. Radcliffe could not always sur- 
mount this difliculty. 

Abbotsford, ? 

1831. 5 










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ADVERTISEMENT. 


The purpose of the following Narrative is to give a 
detailed and accurate account of certain remarkable inci- 
dents which took place in the Orkney Islands, concerning 
which the more imperfect traditions and mutilated records 
of the country only tell us the following erroneous partic- 
ulars : — 

In the month of January 1724''S, a vessel, called the 
Revenge, bearing twenty large guns, and six smaller, 
commanded by John Gow, or Goffe, or Smith, came 
to the Orkney Islands, and was discovered to be a pirate, 
by various acts of insolence and n-.any committed by 
the crew. These were for some time submitted to, the 
inhabitants of these remote islands not possessing arms 
normeansof resistance ; and so bold was the Captain of 
these banditti, that he not only came ashore, and gave 
damcing parties in the village of Stromness, but before 
his real character was discovered, engaged the affections, 
and received the troth-plight of a young lady possessed 
of some property. A patriotic individual, James Fea 
younger of Clestron, formed the plan of securing the 
bucanier, which he effected by a mixture of courage 
and address, in consequence chiefly of Gow’s vessel hav- 
ing gone on shore near the harbour of Calfsound, on the 
Island of Eda, not far distant from a house then inhabit- 
ed by Mr. Fea. In the various stratagems by which Mr. 
F EA contrived finally, at the peril of his life, (they being 
well armed and desperate,) to make the whole pirates his 
prisoners, he was much aided by Mr. James Laing, the 
grandfather of the late Malcolm Laing, Esq. the acute 
and ingenious historian of Scotland during the seven 
teenth century. 


4 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


Gow, and others of his crew, suffered, by sentence o! 
tile High Court of Admiralty, the punishment their crimes 
had long dese»*ved. He conducted himself with great 
audacity when oefore the Court ; and, from an account of 
the matter, by an eye-witness, seems to have been sub- 
jected to some unusual severities, in order to compel him 
to plead. The words are these : “ John Gow would 
not plead, for which he was brought to the bar, and the 
Judge ordered that his thumbs should be squeezed by 
two men, with a whip-cord, till it did break ; and then it 
should be doubled till it did again break, and then laid 
threefold, and that the executioners should pull with their 
wJiole strength ; which sentence Gow endured with a 
great deal of boldness.” The next morning, (27th May, 
1725,) when he had seen the terrible preparations for 
pressing him to death, his courage gave way, and he told 
the Marshal of Court, that he would not have given so 
much trouble, had he been assured Oi not being hanged in 
chains. He was then tried, condemned, and executed, 
with others of his crew. 

It is said, that the lady whose affections Gow had en- 
gaged, went up to London to see him before his death, 
and that arriving too late, she had the courage to request 
a sight of his dead body ; and then, touching the hand ol 
the corpse, she formally resumed the troth-plight which 
she had bestowed. Without going through this ceremo- 
ny, she could not, according to the superstition of the 
country, have escaped a visit from the ghost of her de- 
parted lover, in the event of her bestowing upon any liv- 
ing suitor the faith which she had plighted to the dead. 
This part of the legend may serve as a curious commen- 
I ary on the fine Scottish ballad, which begins, 

" There came a ghost to Margaret's door,” &c. 

The common account of this incident farther bears, 
that Ml Fea, the spirited individual, by whose exertions 
Gow’s career of iniquity was cut short, was so far from 
receiving any reward from Government, that he could no‘ 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


6 


Obtain even countenance enough to protect him against a 
variety of sham suits, raised against him by Newgate so- 
licitors, who acted in the name of Gow, and others of 
the pirate crew; and the various expenses, vexatious 
prosecutions, and other legal consequences, in which his 
gallant exploit involved him, utterly ruined his fortune, and 
his family ; making his memory a notable example to all 
who shall in future take pirates on their own authority. 

It is to be supposed, for the honour of George the 
First’s government, that the last circumstance, as well as 
the dates, and other particulars of the commonly receiv- 
ed story, are inaccurate, since they will be found totally 
irreconcilable with the following veracious narrative 
compiled from materials to which he himself alone has 
had access, by 

The Author of Wavf.rley 










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THE PIRATE 


CHAPTER I. 

The storm had ceased its wintry roar, 

Hoarse dash the billows of the sea ; 

But who on Thule’s desert shore, 

Cries, Have I burnt my harp for thee ? 

Macnid. 

That long, narrow, and irregular island, usually called 
the Mainland of Zetland, because it is by far the largest 
of that Archipelago, terminates, as is well known to the 
mariners who navigate the stormy seas which surround 
the Thule of the ancients, in a cliff of immense height, 
entitled Sumburgh-Head, which presents its bare scalp 
and naked sides to the weight of a tremendous surge, 
forming the extreme point of the isle to the south-east. 
This lofty promontory is constantly exposed to the current 
of a strong and furious tide, which, setting in betwixt tlie 
Orkney and Zetland Islands, and running with force only 
inferior to that of the Pentland Frith, takes its name from 
the headland we have mentioned, and is called the Roost 
of Sumburgh ; roost being the phrase assigned in those 
isles to currents of this description. 

On the land side, the promontory is covered with short 
grass, and slopes steeply down to a little isthmus, upon 
which the sea has encroached in creeks, which, advanc- 
ing from either side of the island, gradually work their 
way forward, and seem as if in a short time, they would 
form a junction, and altogether insulate Sumburgh-Head, 


8 


THE PIRATE. 


vvlien what is now a cape, will become a lonely mountain 
islet, severed from the main-land, of which it is at pres- 
ent the terminating extremity. 

Man, however, had in former days considered this as 
a remote or unlikely event ; for a Norwegian chief of 
other times, or, as other accounts said, and as the name 
of Jarlshof seemed to imply, an ancient Earl of the Ork- 
neys had selected this neck of land as the place for es- 
tablishing a mansion-house. It has been long entirely 
deserted, and the vestiges only can be discerned with 
difficulty ; for the loose sand, borne on the tempestuous 
gales of those stormy regions, has overblown, and almost 
buried, the ruins of the buildings ; but in the end of the 
seventeenth century, a part of the earl’s mansion was 
still entire and habitable. It was a rude building of 
rough stone, with nothing about it to gratify the eye, or to 
excite the imagination ; a large old-fashioned narrow 
house, with a very steep roof, covered with flags composed 
of grey sandstone, would perhaps convey the best idea 
of the place to a modern reader. The windows were 
few, very small in size, and distributed up and down the 
building with utter contempt of regularity. Against the 
main structure had rested, in former times, certain smaller 
copartments of the mansion-house, containing offices, or 
subordinate apartments, necessary for the accommodation 
of the earl’s retainers and menials. But these had be- 
come ruinous ; and the rafters had been taken down for 
fire-wood, or for other purposes ; the walls had given 
w'ay in many places ; and to complete the devastation, 
the sand had already drifted amongst the ruins, and filled 
up what had been once the chambers they contained, to 
the depth of two or three feet. 

Amid this desolation, the inhabitants of Jarlshof had 
contrived, by constant labour and attention, to keep in 
order a few roods of land, which had been inclosed as a 
garden, and which, sheltered by the walls of the house 
itself, from the relentless sea-blast, produced such vegeta- 
bles as the climate could bring forth, or rather as the sea- 
gale would permit to grow ; for these islands experience 


THE PIRATE. 


9 


even less of the rigour of cold than is encountered on the 
nain-land of Scotland ; but, unsheltered by a wall of some 
sort or other, it is scarce possible to raise even the most 
ordinary culinary vegetables ; and as for shrubs or trefes, 
they are entirely out of the question, such is the force 
of the sweeping sea-blast. 

At a short distance from the mansion, and near to the 
sea-beach, just where the creek forms a sort of imperfect 
liarbour, in which lay three or four fishing-boats, there 
were a few most wretched cottages for the inhabitants and 
tenants of the township of Jarlshof, who held the whole 
district of the landlord upon such terms as were in those 
days usually granted to persons of this description, and 
which, of course, were hard enough. The landlord him- 
self resided upon an estate which he possessed in a more 
eligible situation, in a different part of the island, and 
seldom visited his possessions at Sumburgh-Head. He 
was an honest, plain Zetland gentleman, somewhat pas- 
sionate, the necessary result of being surrounded by de- 
pendents ; and somewhat over-convivial in his habits, the 
consequence, perhaps, of having too much time at his 
disposal ; but frank-tempered and generous to his peo- 
ple, and kind and hospitable to strangers. He was de- 
scended also of an old and noble Norwegian family ; a 
circumstance which rendered him dearer to the lower 
orders, most of whom are of the same race ; while the 
lairds, or proprietors, are generally of Scottish extrac- 
tion, who, at that early period, were still considered as 
strangers and intruders. Magnus Troil, who deduced 
his descent from the very earl who was supposed to have 
founded Jarlshof, was peculiarly of this opinion. 

The present inhabitants of Jarlshof had experienced, 
on several occasions, the kindness and good will of the 
proprietor of the territory. When Mr. Mertoun, such 
was the name of the present inhabitant of the old mansion, 
first arrived in Zetland, some years before the story com- 
mences, he had been received at the house of Mr. Troil 
with that warm and cordial hospitality for which the islands 
are distinguished. No one asked him whence he came. 


10 


THE PIRATE, 


tv’here he was going, what was his purpose in visiting so 
remote a corner of the empire, or what was likely to be 
the term of his stay. He arrived a perfect stranger, yet 
was instantly overpowered by a succession of invitations ; 
and in each house which he visited, he found a home as 
long as he chose to accept it, and lived as one of the 
amily, unnoticed and unnoticing, until he thought proper 
.o remove to some other dwelling. This apparent indif- 
ference to the rank, character, and qualities of their guest, 
did not arise from apathy on the part of his kind hosts, 
for the islanders had their full share of natural curiosity ; 
but their delicacy deemed it would be an infringement 
upon the laws of hospitality, to ask questions which their 
guest might have found it difficult or unpleasing to an- 
swer ; and instead of endeavouring, as is usual in other 
countries, to wring out of Mr. Mertoun such communica- 
tions as he might find it agreeable to withhold, the con- 
siderate Zetlanders contented themselves with eagerly 
gathering up such scraps of information as could be col- 
lected in the course of conversation. 

But the rock in an Arabian desert is not more reluc- 
tant to afford water, than Mr. Basil Mertoun was niggard 
in imparting his confidence, even incidentally ; and cer- 
tainly the politeness of the gentry of Thule was never put 
to a more severe test than when they felt that good- 
breeding enjoined them to abstain from inquiring into the 
situation of so mysterious a personage. 

All that was actually known of him was easily summed 
up. Mr. Mertoun had come to Lerwick, then rising into 
some importance, but not yet acknowledged as the prin- 
cipal town of the island, in a Dutch vessel, accompanied 
only by his son, a handsome boy of about fourteen years 
old. His own age might exceed forty. The Dutch 
skipper introduced him to some of the very good friends 
with whom lie used to barter gin and gingerbread for 
little Zetland bullocks, smoked geese, and stockings of 
lambs’ wool ; and although Meinheer could only say, that 
‘‘ Meinheer Mertoun hab bay his bassage like one gentle- 
mans, and hab given a Kreitz-dollar beside to the crew,’' 


THE PIRATE. 


11 


this introduction served to establish the Dutchman’s pas- 
senger in a respectable circle of acquaintances, which 
gradually enlarged, as it appeared that the stranger was 
a man of considerable acquirements. 

This discovery was made almost per force ; for Mer- 
toun was as unwilling to speak upon general subjects, 
as upon his own affairs. But he was sometimes led into 
discussions, which showed, as it were in spite of himself, 
the scholar and the man of the world ; and, at other 
times, as if in requital of the hospitality which he expe- 
rienced, he seemed to compel himself, against his fixed 
nature, to enter into the society of those around him, es- 
pecially w’hen it assumed the grave, melancholy, or satir- 
ical cast, which best suited the temper of his own mind. 
Upon such occasions, the Zetlanders were universally of 
opinion that he must have had an excellent education, 
neglected only in one striking particular, namely, that Mr 
Mertoun scarce knew the stem of a ship from the stern ; 
and in the management of a boat, a cow could not be 
more ignorant. It seemed astonishing such gross igno- 
rance of the most necessary art of life, (in the Zetland 
Isles at least,) should subsist along with his accomplishr 
ments in other respects ; but so it was. 

Unless called forth in the manner we have mentioned, 
the habits of Basil Mertoun were retired and gloomy. 
From loud mirth he instantly fled ; and even the moder- 
ated cheerfulness of a friendly party, had the invariable 
effect of throwing him into deeper dejection than even his 
usual demeanour indicated. 

Women are always particularly desirous of investigat- 
ing mystery, and of alleviating melancholy, especially 
when these circumstances are united in a handsome man 
about the prime of life. It is possible, therefore, that 
amongst the fair-haired and blue-eyed daughters of Thule 
this mysterious and pensive stranger might have found 
some one to take upon herself tlie task of consolation 
had he shown any willingness to accept such kindly offi- 
ces ; but far from doing so, he seemed even to shun the 


12 


THE riRATE. 


presence of the sex, to which in our distresses, whether 
of mind or body, we generally apply for pity and comfort 

To these peculiarities Mr. Mertoim added another, 
which was particularly disagreeable to his host and prin- 
cipal patron, Magnus Troil. This magnate of Zetland, 
descended by the father’s side, as we have already said, 
from an ancient Norwegian family, by the marriage of its 
representative with a Danish lady, held tlie devout opin- 
ion that a cup of Geneva or Nantz was specific against 
all cares and afflictions whatever. These were reme- 
dies to which Mr. Mertoun never applied ; his drink was 
water, and water alone, and no persuasion or entreaties 
could induce him to taste any stronger beverage than was 
afforded by the pure spring. Now this Magnus Troil 
could not tolerate ; it was a defiance to the ancient north- 
ern laws of conviviality, which, for his own part, he had 
so rigidly observed, that although he was wont to assert 
that he had never in his life gone to bed drunk, (that i^ 
in his own sense of the word,) it would have been im- 
possible to prove that he had ever resigned himself tc 
slumber in a state of actual and absolute sobriety. It 
may be therefore asked. What did this stranger bring into 
society to compensate the displeasure given by his austere 
and abstemious habits ? He had, in tli» first place, that 
manner and self-importance which inaik u person of some 
consequence : and although it was conjectured that he 
could not be rich, yet it was certainly known by his ex- 
penditure that neither was he absolutely poor. He had, 
besides, some powers of conversation, when, as we have 
already hinted, he chose to exert them, and his misan- 
thropy or aversion to the business and intercourse of or- 
dinary life, was often expressed in an antithetical manner, 
which passed for wit, when better was not to be had, 
4bove all, Mr. Mertoun’s secret seemed impenetrable, 
and his presence had all the interest of a riddle, which 
men love to read over and over, because tliey cannot find 
out the meaning of it. 

Notwithstanding these recommendations, Jilertoun dif 
fered in so many material points from his host, tlmr aftei 


THE PIRATE. 


13 


he had been for some time a guest at his principal resi- 
dence, Magnus Troil was agreeably surprised when, one 
evening after they had sat two hours in absolute silence, 
.drinking brandy and water, — that is, Magnus drinking the 
alcohol, and Mertoun the element, — the guest asked his 
host’s permission to occupy, as his tenant, this deserted 
mansion of Jarlshof, at the extremity of the territory 
called Dunrossness, and situated just beneath Sumburgh- 
Head. “ I shall be handsomely rid of him,” quoth Mag- 
nus to himself, “ and his kill-joy visage will never again 
stop the bottle in its round. His departure will ruin me 
in lemons, however, for his mere look was quite sufficient 
to sour a whole ocean of punch.” 

Yet the kind-hearted Zetlander generously and disin- 
terestedly remonstrated with Mr. Mertoun on the solitude 
and inconveniences to which he was about to subject him- 
self. “ There were scarcely,” he said, even the most 
necessary articles of furniture in the old house — there 
was no society within many miles — for provisions, the 
principal article of food would be sour sillocks, and his 
only company gulls and gannets.” 

“ M) good friend,” replied Mertoun, “ if you could 
have named a circumstance which would render the resi- 
dence more eligible to me than any other, it is that there 
would be neither human luxury nor human society near 
the place of my retreat ; a shelter from the weather for 
my own head, and for the boy’s, is all I seek for. So 
name your rent, Mr. Troil, and let me be your tenant at 
Jarlshof.” 

“ Rent ?” answered the Zetlander ; “ why, no great 
rent for an old house which no one has lived in since my 
mother’s time, God rest her ! and as for shelter, the old 
walls are thick enough, and will bear many a bang yet. 
But, Heaven love you, Mr. Mertoun think what you are 
purposing. For one of us to live at Jarlshof, were a wild 
scheme enough, but you, who are from another country, 
whether English, Scotch, or Irish, no one can tell” — 

VOL. I. 


14 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Nor does it greatly matter,” said Mertoun, somewhat 
abruptly. 

“ Not a herring’s scale,” answered the Laird ; ‘‘ only 
that I like you the better for being no Scot, as I trust you. 
are not one. Hither they have come like the clack-geese 
— every chamberlain has brought over a flock of his own 
name, and his own hatching, for what I know, and here 
they roost for ever — catch them returning to their own 
barren Highlands or Lowlands, when once they have tast 
ed our Zetland beef, and seen our bonny voes and locks 
No, sir,” (here Magnus proceeded with great animation, 
sipping from time to time the half-diluted spirit, which at 
the same time animated his resentment against the intrud- 
ers, and enabled him to endure the mortifying reflection 
which it suggested,) — “ No, sir, the ancient days and the 
genuine manners of these Islands are no more ; for our 
ancient possessors, — our Patersons, our Feas, our Schlag- 
brenners, our Thorbiorns, have given place to Giffords, 
Scotts, Mouats, men whose names bespeak them or their 
ancestors strangers to the soil which we the Troils have 
inhabited long before the days of Turf-Einar, who first 
taught these Isles the mystery of burning peat for fuel, 
and who has been handed down to a grateful posterity by 
a name which records the discovery.” 

This was a subject upon which the potentate of Jarl- 
shof was usually very diffiise, and Mertoun saw him enter 
upon it with pleasure, because he knew he should not be 
called upon to contribute any aid to the conversation, and 
might therefore indulge his own saturnine humour while 
the Norwegian Zetlander declaimed on the change of 
times and inhabitants. But just as Magnus had arrived 
at the melancholy conclusion, “ how probable it was, that 
in another century scarce a merJc — scarce even an ure of 
land, would be in the possession of the Norse inhabitants, 
the true Udallers* of Zetland,” he recollected the cir- 
cumstances of his guest, and stopped suddenly short. 


* The 1 fdallers are the allodial ppssessors of Zetland, vi’ho hold their posses 
gioijs undt r the old Norwegian law, instead of the feudal tenures introduced 
aiTlong tlvin from Scotlautl. 


THE PIRATE. 


15 


1 do not say pll this,” he added, interrupting himself, 
‘ as if I were unwilling that you should settle on my es- 
tate, Mr. Mertoun — hut for Jarlshof — the place is a wild 
one — Come from where you will, I warrant you will say, 
like other travellers, you came from a better climate than 
ours, for so say you all. And yet you think of a retreat 
which the very natives run away from. Will you not 
take your glass ?” — (This was to be considered as inter- 
•ectional,) — “ Then here’s to you.” 

“ My good sir,” answered Mertoun, “ I am indifferent 
to climate ; if there is but air enough to fill my lungs, I 
care not if it be the breath of Arabia or of Lapland.” 

“ Air enough you may have,” answered Magnus, “ no 
lack of that— -somewhat damp, strangers allege it to be, 
but we know a corrective for that — Here’s to you, Mr. 
Mertoun — you must learn to do so, and to smoke a pipe ; 
and then, as you say, you will find the air of Zetland 
equal to that of Arabia. But have you seen Jarlshof?” 

The stranger intimated that he had not. 

“ Then,” replied Magnus, “ you have no idea ol 
your undertaking. If you think it a comfortable road- 
stead like this, with the house situated on the side of an 
inland voe,* that brings the herrings up to your door, you 
are mistaken, my heart. At Jarlshof you will see nought 
but the wild waves tumbling on the bare rocks, and the 
Roost of Sumburgh running at the rate of fifteen knots 
an-hour.” 

“ 1 shall see nothing at least of the current of human 
passions,” replied Mertoun. 

“ You will hear nothing but the clanging and scream- 
ing of scarfs, sheer-waters, and sea-gulls, from daybreak 
till sunset.” 

“ I will compound,” my friend, replied the stranger, 
‘ so that I do not hear the chattering of women’s tongues.’* 

“ Ah,” said the Norman, “ that is because you hear 
just now my little Minna and Brenda singing in the gar 
den with your Mordaunt. Now, I would rather listen to 


* Salt-water lake. 


16 


THE PIRATE. 


tlieir little voices, than the sky-lark whi<^h I once heard in 
Caithness, or the nightingale that I have read of. — What 
will the girls do for want of their playmate Mordaunt ?’ 

“ They will shift for themselves,” answered Mertoun , 
“ younger or elder they will find playmates or dupes. — 
But the question is, Mr. Troil, will you let to me, as your 
tenant, this old mansion of Jarlshof ?” 

“ Gladly, since you make it your option to live in a 
spot so desolate.” 

“ And as for the rent ?” continued Mertoun. 

“ The rent ?” replied Magnus ; “ hum — why, you 
must have the bit of plantie cruive] which they once 
called a garden, and a right in the scat-hold, and a six- 
penny merk of land, that the tenants may fish for you ; 
— eight lispunds^ of butter, and eight shillings sterling 
yearly is not too much ?” 

Mr. Mertoun agreed to terms so moderate, and from 
thenceforward resided chiefly at the solitary mansion 
which we have described in the beginning of this chapter, 
conforming not only without complaint, but, as it seemed, 
with a sullen pleasure to all the privations which so wild 
and desolate a situation necessarily imposed on its inhab- 
tant. 


CHAPTER II. 

’Tis not alone the scene — the man, Anselmo, 

The man finds sympathies in these wild wastes, 

And roughly tumbling seas, which fairer views 
And smoother waves deny him. 

Ancient Drama. 

The few inhabitants of the township of Jarlshof had 
at first heard with alarm, that a person of rank superior 
to their own was come to reside in the ruinous tenement, 
which they still called the Castle. In those days, (for 
the present times are greatly altered for the better,) the 


THE PIRATE. 


17 


presence of a superior, in such a situation, was almost 
certain to be attended with additional burdens and exac- 
tions, for which, under one pretext or another, feudal 
customs furnished a thousand apologies. By each of 
these, a part of the tenants’ hard -won and precarious 
profits was diverted for the use of their powerful neigh- 
bour and superior, the tacksman, as he was called. But 
the sub-tenants speedily found that no oppression of this 
kind was to be apprehended at the hands of Basil Mer- 
toun. His own means, whether large or small, were at 
least fully adequate to his expenses, which, so far as re- 
garded his habits of life, were of the most frugal descrip- 
tion. The luxuries of a few books, and some philosoph- 
ical instruments, with which he was supplied from Hon don 
as occasion ofiTered, seemed to indicate a degree of wealth 
unusual in those islands ; but, on the otlier hand, the 
table and the accommodations at Jarlshof, did not exceea 
what was maintained by a Zetland proprietor of the most 
inferior description. 

The tenants of the hamlet troubled themselves very 
little about the quality of their superior, as soon as they 
found that- their situation was rather to be mended than 
rendered worse by his presence ; and, once relieved from 
the apprehension of his tyrannizing over them, they laid 
their heads together to make the most of him by various 
petty tricks of overcharge and extortion, which for a while 
the stranger submitted to with the most philosophic indif- 
ference. An incident, however, occurred, which put his 
character in a new light, and effectually checked all fu- 
ture efforts at extravagant imposition. 

A dispute arose in the kitchen of the Castle betwixt ar 
old governante, who acted as housekeeper to Mr. Mer- 
foun, and Sweyn Erickson, as good a Zetlander as ever 
rowed a boat to the haaf fishing ;* which dispute, as i? 


* i. e. The deep-sea fishing-, in distinction to that which is practised along 
snore. 


VOL. I. 


18 


THE nilATE. 


usual in such cases, was maintained with such increasing 
heat and vociferation as to reach the ears of the master, 
(as he was called,) who, secluded in a solitary turret, was 
deeply employed in examining the contents of a new pack- 
age of books from London, which, after long expectation, 
had found its way to Hull, from thence by a whaling ves- 
sel to Lerwick, and so to Jarlshof. With more than the 
usual thrill of indignation which indolent people always 
feel when roused into action on . some unpleasant occasion 
Mertoun descended to the scene of contest, and so sud- 
denly, peremptorily, and strictly, inquired into the cause 
of dispute, that the parties, notwithstanding every evasion 
which they attempted, became unable to disguise from 
him that their difference respected the several interests to 
which the honest governante, and no less honest fisher- 
man, were respectively entitled, in an overcharge of about 
one hundred per cent, on a bargain of rock-cod, purchas- 
ed by the former from the latter, for the use of the family 
at Jarlshof. 

When this was fairly ascertained and confessed, Mr. 
IMertoun stood looking upon the culprits with eyes in 
which the utmost scorn seemed to contend with awaken- 
ing passion. — “ Hark you, ye old hag,” said he at length 
to the housekeeper, “ avoid my house this instant ! and 
know that I dismiss you, not for being a liar, a thief, and 
an ungrateful quean, — for these are qualities as proper to 
you as your name of woman, — but for daring, in my house, 
to scold above your breath. — And for you, you rascal, 
who suppose you may cheat a stranger as you would 
flinch* a whale, know that I am well acquainted with the 
rights which, by delegation from your master, Magnus 
Troil, I can exercise over you, if I will. Provoke me to 
a certain pitch, and you shall learn, to your cost, I can 
break your rest as easily as you can interrupt my leisure 
I know the meaning of scat, and wattle, and hawkhen, and 


The operation of slicing the blubber from the bones of the whale is caileo 
•fichnically, Jlinching 


THE I'lKATE. 


'lagalef, and every other exaction by which your lords, in. 
ancient and modern days, have wrung your withers ; noi 
is there one of you that shall not rue the day that you 
could not be content with robbing me of my money, but 
must also break in on my leisure with your atrocious 
northern clamour, that rivals in discord the screaming ol 
a flight of Arctic gulls. ” 

Nothing better occurred to Sweyn, in answer to this 
objurgation, than the preferring a humble request that his 
honour would be pleased to keep the cod-fish without pay- 
ment, and say no more about the matter ; but by this time 
Mr. Mertoun had worked up his passions into an ungov- 
ernable rage, and with one hand he threw the money at 
the fisherman’s head, while with the other he pelted him 
out of the apartment with his own fish, which he finally 
flung out of doors after him. 

There was so much of appalling and tyrannic fury in 
the stranger’s manner on this occasion, that Sweyn neither 
stopped to collect the money nor take back his commod- 
ity, but fled at a precipitate rate to the small hamlet, to 
tell his comrades that if they provoked Master Mertoun 
any farther, he would turn an absolute Pate Stuartf on 
their hand, and head and hang without either judgment 
or mercy. 

Hither also came the discarded housekeeper, to consult 
with her neighbours and kindred, (for she too was a na- 
tive of the village,) what she should do to regain the de- 
sirable situation from which she had been so suddenly 
expelled. The old Ranzellaar of the village, who had 
the voice most potential in the deliberations of the town- 
ship, after hearing what had happened, pronounced that 
Sweyn Erickson had gone too far in raising the market 
upon Mr. Mertoun ; and that whatever pretext the tacks- 
man might assume for thus giving way to his anger, the 
real grievance must have been the charging the rock-cod- 
fish at a penny instead of a halfpenny a pound ; he there- 


t Meaning, probably, Patrick Stuart, Earl of Orkney, executed fy tyrann} 
and oppression, practised on the inhabitants of those remote islands, in the be 
einning of the seventeenth century. 

2 


20 


THE PIRATE. 


fore exhorted all the community never to rai se their ex- 
actions in future beyond the proportion of three pence 
upon the shilling, at which rate their master at the Castle 
could not reasonably be expected to grumble, since, as he 
was disposed to do them no harm, it was reasonable to 
think that, in a moderate way, he had no objection to dd 
them good. “ And three upon twelve,” said the expe- 
rienced Ranzellaar, ‘‘ is a decent and moderate profit, 
and will bring with it God’s blessing and Saint Ronald’s.” 

Proceeding upon the tariff thus judiciously recommend- 
ed to them, the inhabitants of Jarlshof cheated Mertoun 
in future only to the moderate extent of twenty-five per 
cent. ; a rate to which all nabobs, army-contractors, spec- 
ulators in the funds, and others, whom recent and rapid 
success has enabled to settle in the country upon a great 
scale, ought to submit, as very reasonable treatment at the 
hand of their rustic neighbours. Mertoun at least seem- 
ed of that opinion, for he gave himself no fartlier trouble 
upon the subject of his household expenses. 

The conscript fathers of Jarlshof, having settled their 
own matters, took next under their consideration the case 
of Swertha, the banished matron who had been expelled 
from the Castle, whom, as an experienced and useful ally, 
they were highly desirous to restore to her office of house- 
keeper, should that be found possible. But as their wis- 
dom here failed them, Swertha, in despair, had recourse 
to the good offices of Mordaunt Mertoun, with whom she 
had acquired some favour by her knowledge in old Nor- 
wegian ballads, and dismal tales concerning the Trows or 
Drows, (the dwarfs of the Scalds,) with whom supersti- 
tious eld had peopled many a lonely cavern and brown 
dale in Dunrossness, as in every other district of Zetland. 
— “ Swertha,” said the youth, “ I can do but little for 
you, but you may do something for yourself. My father’s 
passion resembles the fury of those ancient champions, 
those Berserkars you sing songs about.” 

“ Ay, ay, fish of my heart,” replied the old womai\ 
with a pathetic whine ; “ the Berserkars were champions 
who lived before the blessed days of Saint Olave, and who 


TIIK PIRATE. 


21 


used to run like madmen on swords and spears, and bar* 
poons and muskets, and snap them all into pieces as a fin- 
ner^ would go through a herring-net, and then, when the 
fury went off, they were as weak and unstable as water.”'*. 

‘‘ That’s the very thing, Swertha,” said Mordaiint.* 

Now, my father never likes to think of his passion after 
it is over, and is so much of a Berserkar, that, let him be 
desperate as he will to-day, he will not care about it to- 
morrow. Therefore, he has not filled up your place , n 
the household at the Castle, and not a mouthful of warm 
food has been dressed there since you went away, and not 
a morsel of bread baked, but we have lived just upon 
whatever cold thing came to hand. Now, Swertha, I 
will be your warrant, that if you go ooldly up to the Cas- 
tle, and enter upon the discharge of your duties as usual, 
you will never hear a single word from him.” 

Swertha hesitated at first to obey this bold counsel. 
She said, “ to her thinking, Mr. Mertoun, when he was 
angry, looked more like a fiend than any Berserkar of 
them all ; that the fire flashed from his eyes, and the foam 
flew from his lips ; and that it would be a plain tempting of 
Providence to put herself again in such a venture.” 

But, on the encouragement which she received from 
the son, she determined at length once more to face the 
parent ; and, dressing herself in her ordinary household 
attire, for so Mordaunt particularly recommended, she 
slipped into the Castle, and presently resuming the vari- 
ous and numerous occupations which devolved on her, 
seemed as deeply engaged in household cares as if she 
had never been out of office. 

The first day of her return to her duty, Swertha made 
no appearance in presence of her master, but trusted that, 
after his three days’ diet on cold meat, a hot dish, dressed 
with the best of ner simple skill, might introduce her fa- 
vourably to his recollection. When Mordaunt had re- 
ported that his father had taken no notice of this change 
of diet, and when she herself observed that, in passing 
and repassing him occasionally, her appearance produced 
no effect upon her singular master* she began to imagine 


22 


THK PIIIATE. 


that the whole affair had escaped Mr. Mertoun s mem 
ory, and was active in her duty as usual. Neilhe 
was she convinced of the contrary until one day, when 
happening somewhat to elevate her tone in a dispute 
with the other maid-servant, her master, who at that 
time passed the place of contest, eyed her with a strong 
glance, and pronounced the single word, remember 1 in a 
tone which taught Swertha the government of her tongue 
for many weeks after. 

If Mertoun was whimsical in his mode of governing his 
household, he seemed no less so in his plan of educating 
Ills son. He shewed the youth but few symptoms of pa- 
rental affection ; yet, in his ordinary state of mind, the 
improvement of Mord aunt’s education seemed to be the 
utmost object of his life. He had both books and infor- 
mation sufficient to discharge the task of tutor in the or- 
dinary branches of knowledge ; and in this capacity was 
regular, calm, and strict, not to say severe, in exacting 
from his pupil the attention necessary for his profiting. 
But in the perusal of history, to which their attention was 
frequently turned, as well as in the study of classic au- 
thors, there often occurred facts or sentiments which 
produced an instant effect upon Mertoun’s mind, and 
brought on him suddenly what Swertha, Sweyn, and even 
Mordaunt, came to distinguish by the name of his dark 
hour. He was aware, in the usual case, of its approach, 
and retreated to an inner apartment, into which he never 
permitted even Mordaunt to enter. Here he would abide 
in seclusion for days, and even weeks, only coming out 
at uncertain times, to take such food as they had taken 
care to leave within his reach, which he used in wonder- 
fully small quantities. At other times, and especially 
during the winter solstice, when almost every person 
spends the gloomy time within doors in feasting and mer- 
riment this unhappy man would wrap hiniself in a dark- 
coloured sea-cloak, and wander out along ^he stormy 
beach, or upon the desolate heath, indulging his own 
gloomy and wayward reveries under the inclement sky, 
the rather that he was then most sure to wander imen- 
countered and unobserved. 


THE rillATE. 


23 


As IMordaunt grew older, he learned to note the par- 
ticular signs which preceded these fits of gloomy despon- 
dency, and to direct such precautions as might insure his 
unfortunate parent from ill-timed interruption, (which had 
always the effect of driving him to fury,) while, at the 
same time, full provision was made for his subsistence. 
Mordaunt perceived that at such periods the melancholy 
fit of his father was greatly prolonged, if he chanced to 
present himself to his eyes while the dark hc\ r was upon 
him. Out of respect, therefore, to his parent, as well as 
to indulge the love of active exercise and of amusement 
natural to his period of life, Mordaunt used often to ab- 
sent himself altogether from the mansion of Jarlshof, and 
even from the district, secure that his father, if the dark 
hour passed away in his absence, would be little inclined to 
inquire how his son had disposed of his leisure, so that he 
was sure he had not watched his own weak moments ; 
that being the subject on which he entertained the utmost 
maloLisy. 

At such times, therefore, all the sources of amusement 
which the country afforded, were open to the younger 
Mertoun, who, in these intervals of his education, had an 
opportunity to give full scope to the energies of a bold, 
active, and daring character. He was often engaged with 
the youth of the hamlet in those desperate sports, to 
which the “ dreadful trade of the samphire-gatherer’’ is 
like a walk upon level ground — often joined those mid- 
night excursions upon the face of the giddy cliffs, to se- 
cure the eggs or the young of the sea-fowl 5 and in these 
daring adventures displayed an address, presence of 
mind, and activity, which, in one so young, and not a na- 
tive of the country, astonished the oldest fowlers.® 

Ai other times, Mordaunt accompanied Sweyn and 
other fishefhien in their long and perilous expeditions to 
the distant ^nd "deep sea, learning under their direction 
the management of the boat, in which they equal or ex- 
ceed, perhaps, any natives of the British empire. This 
exercise had charms for Mordaunt, independently of the 
fishing alone. 


24 


THE PIRATE. 


At this time, the old Norwegian sagas were much re- 
membered, and often rehearsed by the fishermen, who 
still preserved among themselves the ancient Norse 
tongue, which was the speech of their forefathers. In the 
dark romance of those Scandinavian tales, lay much that 
was captivating to a youthful ear ; and the classic fables of 
antiquity were rivalled at least, if not excelled, in Mor- 
daimt’s opinion, by the strange legends of Berserk ars, of 
sea-kings, of dwarfs, giants, and sorcerers, which he heard 
from the native Zetlanders. Often the scenes around 
him were assigned as the localities of the wild poems, 
which, half recited, half chanted, by voices as hoarse, if 
not so loud, as the waves over which they floated, pointed 
out the very bay on which they sailed as the scene of a 
bloody sea-fight ; the scarce-seen heap of stones that bris- 
tled over the projecting cape, as the dun or castle of some 
potent Earl or noted pirate ; the distant and solitary grey' 
stone on the lonely moor, as marking the grave of a 
nero ; the wild cavern, up which the sea roiled in heavy, 
oroad, and unbroken billows, as the dwelling of some 
noted sorceress.® 

The ocean also had its mysteries, the efiect of which 
was aided by the dim twilight, through which it was im- 
perfectly seen for more than half the year. Its bottom- 
ess depths and secret caves contained, according to the 
account of Sweyn and others, skilled in legendary lore, 
such wonders as modern navigators reject with disdain*. 
In the quiet moonlight bay, where the waves came rip- 
pling to the shore, upon a bed of smooth sand intermin- 
gled with shells, the mermaid was still seen to glide 
along the waters, and, mingling her voice with the sigh- 
ing breeze, was often heard to sing of subterranean 
wonders, or to chant prophecies of future events. Tlie 
kraken, that hugest of living things, was still supposed to 
cumber the recesses of the Northern Ocean ; and often, 
when some fog-bank covered the sea at a distance, the 
eye of the experienced boatmen saw the horns of the mon- 
strous leviathan welking and waving amidst the wreaths 
of mist, and bore away with all press of oar and sail, lest 


THE PIRATE. 


25 


the sudden suction, occasioned by the sinking of the mon- 
strous mass to the bottom, should drag within the grasp 
of its multifarious feeleis his own frail skiff. The sea- 
snake was also known, w hich, arising out of the depths of 
ocean, stretches to the skies his enormous neck, covered 
with a mane like that of a war-horse, eind with its broad 
glittering eyes, raised mast-head high, looks out, as it 
seems, for plunder or for victims. 

Many prodigious stories of these marine monsters, and 
of many others less known, were then universally received 
among the Zetlanders, whose descendants have not as 
yet b}- any means abandoned faith in them.’' 

Such legends are, indeed, every where current amongst 
the vulgar ; but the imagination is far more powerfully 
affected by them on the deep and dangerous seas of the 
north, amidst precipices and headlands, many hundred 
feet in height, — amid perilous straits, and currents, and 
eddies, — long sunken reefs of rock, over which the vivid 
ocean foams and boils, — dark caverns, to whose extrem- 
ities neither man nor skiff has ever ventured,— lonely and 
often uninhabited isles, — and occasionally the ruins ot 
ancient northern fastnesses, dimly seen by the feeble light 
of the Arctic winter. To Mordaunt, who had much ot 
romance in his disposition, these superstitions formed a 
pleasing and interesting exercise of the imagination, while, 
half doubting, half inclined to believe, he listened to the 
tales chanted concerning these wonders of nature, and 
creatures of credulous belief, told in the rude but ener- 
getic language of the ancient Scalds. 

But there wanted not softer and lighter amusement, 
that might seem better suited to Mordaunt’s age, than the 
wild tales and rude exercises which we have already 
mentioned. The season of winter, when, from the shoit- 
ness of the day-light, labour becomes impossible, is in 
Zetland the time of revel, feasting, and merriment. 
Whatever the fisherman has been able to acquire during 
summer, was expended, and often wasted, in maintaining 
the mirth and hospitality of his hearth during this period ; 

VOL I. 


26 


THE PIRATE. 


wHLe the landholders and gentlemen of the island pve 
double loose to their convivial and hospitable dispositions^ 
thronged their houses with guests, and drove away the 
rigour of the season with jest, glee, and song, the dance 
and the wine-cup. 

Amid the revels of this merry, though rigorous season, 
no youth added more spirit to the dance, or glee to the 
revel, than the young stranger, Mordaunt Mertoun. When 
his father’s state of mind permitted, or indeed required his 
absence, he wandered from house to house, a welcome 
guest wherever he came, and lent his willing voice to the 
song, and his foot to the dance. A boat, or, if the weather, 
as was often the case, 'permitted not that convenience, one 
of the numerous ponies, which, straying in hordes about 
the extensive moors, may be said to be at any man’s com- 
mand who can catch them, conveyed him from the man- 
sion of one hospitable Zetlander to that of another. None 
excelled him in performing the warlike sword-dance, a 
species of amusement which had been derived from the 
habits of the ancient Norsemen. He could play upon 
the gue, and upon the common violin, the melancholy and 
pathetic tunes peculiar to the country ; and with great 
spirit and execution could relieve their monotony with the 
livelier airs of the North of Scotland. When a party set 
forth as maskers, or, as they are called in Scotland, 
ards, to visit some neighbouring Laird, or rich Udaller, it 
augured well of the expedition, if Mordaunt Mertoun could 
be prevailed upon to undertake the office of skudler, or 
leader of the band. Upon these occasions, full of fun 
and frolic, he led his retinue from house to house, bring- 
ing mirth wdiere he went, and leaving regret when he de- 
parted. Mordaunt became thus generally known, and 
beloved as generally, through most of the houses com- 
posing the patriarchal community of the Main Isle ; but 
his visits were most frequently and most willingly paid at 
the mansion of his father’s landlord and protector, Mag- 
nus Troil. 

It was not entirely the hearty and sincere welcome ol 
the worthy old Magnate, nor the sense that he was in ef- 


Tin: PIRATE, 


21 


feet his father’s patron, which occasioned these frequent 
v^isits. The hand of welcome was indeed received as 
eagerly as it was sincerely given, while the ancient 
Udaller, raising himself in his huge chair, whereof the in- 
side was lined with well-dressed seal-skins, and the outside 
composed of massive oak, carved by the rude graving- 
tool of some Hamburgh carpenter, shouted forth his wel- 
come in a tone, which might, in ancient times, have hailed 
the return of loul, the highest festival of the Goths. There 
was metal yet more attractive, and younger hearts, whose 
welcome, if less loud, was as sincere as that of the jolly 
Udaller. But this is matter which ought not to be discuss- 
ed at the conclusion of a chapter. 


CHAPTER III. 

“ O, Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, 

They were twa bonnie lasses ; 

They biggit a house on yon bum-brae 
And theekit It ower wi’ rashes. 

Fair Bessy Bell I loo'd yestreen, 

And thought I ne’er could alter ; 

But Mary Gray’s twa pawky een 
Have garr’d my fancy falter. 

Scots Song. 

We have already mentioned Minna and Brenda, the 
daughters of Magnus Troil. Their mother had been deau 
for many years, and they were now two beautiful girls, 
the eldest only eighteen, which might be a year or two 
younger than Mordaunt Mertoun, the second about seven- 
teen. — They were the joy of their father’s heart, and the 
light of his old eyes ; and although indulged to a degree 
which might have endangered his comfort and their own 
they repaid his affection with a love, into which even 
blind indulgence had not introduced slight regard, or feni- 


28 


THE PIRATE. 


inine caprice. The difference of their tempers and oi 
their complexions was singularly striking, although com- 
bined, as is usual, with a certain degree of family re- 
semblance. 

The mother of these maidens had been a Scottish lady 
from the Highlands of Sutherland, the orphan of a noble 
chief, who, driven from his own country during the feuds 
of the seventeenth century, had found shelter in those 
peaceful islands, which, amidst poverty and seclusion, 
were thus far happy, that they remained unvexed by dis- 
cord, and unstained by civil broil. The father (his name 
was Saint Clair,) pined for his native glen, his feudal 
tower, his clansmen, and his fallen authority, and died 
not long after his arrival in Zetland. The beauty of his 
orphan daughter, despite her Scottish lineage, melted the 
stout heart of Magnus Troil. He sued and was listened 
to, and she became his bride ; but dying in the fifth year 
of their union, left him to mourn his brief period of do- 
mestic happiness. 

From her mother, Minna inherited the stately form 
and dark eyes, the raven locks and finely-pencilled brows, 
which showed she was, on one side at least, a stranger to 
the blood of Thule. Her cheek, — 

O call il fair, not pale I 

was SO slightly and delicately tinged with the rose, that 
many thought the lily had an undue proportion in her 
complexion. But in that predominance of the paler 
flower, there was nothing sickly or languid ; it was the 
true natural colour of health, and corresponded in a pe- 
culiar degree with features which seemed calculp.led 
to express a contemplative and high-minded character. 
When Minna Troil heard a tale of woe or of injustice, il 
was then her blood rushed to her cheeks, and showed 
plainly how warm it beat, notwithstanding the generally 
serious, composed, and retiring disposition, which hei 
countenance and demeanour seemed to exhibit. If stran- 
gers sometimes conceived that these fine features were 
clouded by melancholy, for which her age and situation 


THE PIRATE. 


29 


could scarce have given occasion, they were soon satis- 
fied, upon further acquaintance, that the placid, mild 
quietude of her disposition, and the mental energy of a 
character which was but little interested in ordinary and 
trivial occurrences, was the real cause of her gravity ; 
and most men, when they knew that her melancholy had 
no ground in real sorrow, and was only the aspiration 
of a soul bent on more important objects than those 
by which she was surrounded, might have wished her 
whatever could add to her happiness, but could scarce 
have desired that, graceful as she was in her natural and 
unaffected seriousness, she should change that deport- 
ment for one more gay. In short, notwithstanding our 
wish to have avoided that hackneyed simile of an angel, 
we cannot avoid saying there was something in the serious 
beauty of her aspect, in the measured, yet graceful ease 
of her motions, in the music of her voice, and the serene • 
purity of her eye, that seemed as if Minna Troil belonged 
naturally to some higher and better sphere, and was on- 
ly the chance visitant of a world that was not worthy ot 
her. 

The scarcely less beautiful, equally lovely, and equally 
innocent Brenda, was of a complexion as differing from 
her sister as they differed in character, taste, and expres- 
sion. Her profuse locks were of that paly brown which 
receives from the passing sunbeam a tinge of gold, but 
darkens again when the ray has passed from it. Her 
eye, her mouth, the beautiful row of teeth, which in her 
innocent vivacity were frequently disclosed ; the fre^h, 
yet not too bright glow of a healthy complexion, tinging 
a skin like the drifted snow, spoke her genuine Scandi • * 

navian descent. A fairy form, less tall than that of Minna, 
out still more finely moulded into symmetry — a careless, 
and almost childish lightness of step — an eye that seem 
ed to look on every object with pleasure, from a natural 
and serene cheerfulness of disposition, attracted even 
more general admiration than the charms of her sister, 

VOL. I 


30 


THE PIRATE 


though perhaps that which Minna did excite, might be oi 
a more intense, as well as more reverential charactc^r 
The dispositions of these lovely sisters were not less dif- 
ferent than their complexions. In the kindly affections, 
neither could be said to excel the other, so much were they 
attached to their father and to each other. But the cheer- 
fulness of Brenda mixed itself with the every-day busi- 
ness of life, and seemed inexhaustible in its profusion 
The less buoyant spirit of her sister appeared to bring to 
society a contented wish to be interested and pleased 
with what was going forward, but was rather placidly carri- 
ed along with the stream of mirth and pleasure, than dis- 
posed to aid its progress by any efforts of her own. She 
endured mirth, rather than enjoyed it ; and the pleasures 
in which she most delighted, were those of a graver and 
more solitary cast. The knowledge which is derived from 
books was beyond her reach. Zetland afforded few 
opportunities, in those days, of studying the lessons be- 
queathed 

By dead men to their kind ; 

and Magnus Troil, such as we have described him, was 
not a person within whose mansion the means of such 
knowledge were to be acquired. But the book of nature 
was before Minna, that noblest of volumes, where we 
are ever called to wonder and to admire, even when we 
cannot understand. The plants of those wild regions, 
the shells on the shores, and the long list of feathered clans 
which haunt their cliffs and eyries, were as well known to 
Minna Troil, as to the most experienced fowlers. Her 
powers of observation were wonderful, and little in- 
terrupted by other tones of feeling. The information 
which she acquired by habits of patient attention, was 
indelibly rivetted in a naturally powerful memory. She 
had also a high feeling for the solitary and melancholy 
grandeur of the scenes in which she was placed. The 
ocean, in all its varied forms of sublimity and terror — the 
tremendous cliffs that resound to the ceaseless roar of 
the billows, and the clang of the sea-fowl, had for Minna 


THE PIRATE. 


SI 


R charm in almost every state in which the changing 
seasons exhibited them. Witli the enthusiastic feelings 
proper to the romantic race from which her motlier de- 
scended, the love of natural objects was to her a passion 
capable not only of occupying, but at times of agitating, 
her mind Scenes upon which her sister looked with a 
sense of transient awe or emotion, which vanished on her 
return from witnessing them, continued long to fill Minna’s 
pagination, not only in solitude, and in the silence of the 
night, but in the hours of society. So that sometimes 
when she sat like a beautiful statue, a present member 
of the domestic circle, her thoughts were far absent, wan- 
dering on the wild sea-shore, and among the yet wilder 
mountains of her native isles. And yet, when recalled to 
conversation, and mingling in it with interest, there were 
few to whom her friends were more indebted for enhanc- 
ing its enjoyments ; and although something in her man- 
ners claimed deference (notwithstanding her early youth) 
as well as affection, even her gay, lovely, and amiable> 
sister was not more generally beloved than the more re- 
tired and pensive Minna. 

Indeed the two lovely sisters were not only the delight 
of their friends, but the pride of those islands, where 
the inhabitants of a certain rank were blended, by the re- 
moteness of their situation, and the general hospitality of 
their habits, into one friendly community. A 'wandering 
poet and parcel-musician, who, after going through vari- 
ous fortunes, had returned to end his days as he could in 
his native islands, had celebrated the daughters of Mag- 
nus in a poem, which he entitled Night and Day; and, 
in his description of Minna, might almost be thought to 
have anticipated, though only in a rude outline, the ex- 
quisite lines of Lord Byron, — 

She walks in beauty, like the night 
Of cloudless climes and starry skies; 

And all that’s best of dark and bright 
JMeet in her aspect and her eyes : 

Thus mellow’d to that tender light 
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.” 


32 


THE PIRATE. 


Their father loved the maidens both so we 1, that i- 
might be difficult to say which he loved best ; saving that, 
perchance he liked his graver damsel better in the walk 
without doors, and his merry maiden better by the fire- 
side ; that he more desired the society of Minna when 
he was sad, and that of Brenda when he was mirthful ; 
and, what was nearly the same thing, preferred Minna be- 
fore noon, and Brenda after the glass had circulated in 
the evening. 

But it was still more extraordinary, that the affections 
of Mordaunt Mertoun seemed to hover with the same 
impartiality as those of their father betwixt the two lovely 
sisters. From his boyhood, as we have noticed, he had 
been a frequent inmate of the residence of Magnus at 
Burgh-Westra, although it lay nearly twenty miles dis- 
tant from Jarlshof. The impassable character of the 
country betwixt these places, extending over hills covered 
with loose and quaking bog, and frequently intersected by 
the creeks or arms of the sea, which indent the island on 
either side, as well as by fresh-water streams and lakes, 
rendered the journey difficult, and even dangerous, in 
the dark season ; yet, as soon as the state of his father’s 
mind warned him to absent himself, Mordaunt, at every 
risk, and under every difficulty, was pretty sure to be 
found the next day at Burgh-Westra, having achieved 
his journey in less time than would have been employed 
perhaps by the most active native. 

He was of course set down as a wooer of one of the 
daughters of Magnus, by the public of Zetland ; and 
when the oldUdaller’s great partiality to the youth was con- 
sidered, nobody doubted that he might aspire to the hand 
of either of those distinguished beauties, with as large a 
share of islets, rocky moorland, and shore-fishings, as might 
be the fitting portion of a favoured child, and with the pre- 
sumptive prospect of possessing half the domairs of the 
ancient house of Troil, when their present owner should be 
no more. This seemed all a reasonable speculation, and, 
m theory at least, better constructed than many that are 
current through the world as unquestionable facts But 


THE PIRATE. 


'33 


alas ! all that sharpness of observation which could be 
applied to the conduct of the parties, failed to determine 
the main point, to which of the young persons, namely, 
the attentions of Mordaunt were peculiarly devoted. He 
seemed, in general, to treat them as an affectionate and 
attached brother might have treated two sisters, so equally 
dear to him that a breath would have turned the scale oi 
affection. Or if at any time, which often happened, the 
one maiden appeared the more especial object of his at- 
tention, it seemed only to be because circumstances called 
her peculiar talents and disposition into more particular 
and immediate exercise. 

Both the sisters were accomplished in the simple music 
of the north, and Mordaunt, who was their assistant, and 
sometimes their preceptor, when they were practising this 
delightful art, might be now seen assisting Minna in the 
acquisition of those wild, solemn, and simple airs, to which 
Scalds and harpers sung of old the deeds of heroes, and 
presently found equally active in teaching Brenda the 
more lively and complicated music, which their father’s 
affection caused to be brought from the English or Scot- 
tish capital for the use of his daughters. And while con- 
versing with them, Mordaunt, who mingled a strain of 
deep and ardent enthusiasm with the gay and ungovern- 
able spirits of youth, was equally ready to enter into the 
wild and poetical visions of Minna, or into the lively, and 
often humorous chat of her gayer sister. In short, so 
little did he seem to attach himself to either damsel ex- 
clusively, that he was sometimes heard to say, that Minna 
never looked so lovely, as when her light-hearted sister 
had induced her, for the time, to forget her habitual grav- 
ity ; or Brenda so interesting, as when she sat listening, a 
subdued and affected partaker of the deep pathos of her 
sister Minna. 

The public of the mainland were, therefore, to use 
the hunter’s phrase, at fault in their farther conclu- 
sions, and could but determine, after long vacillating 
betwixt the maidens, that the young man was posi- 
li’^ely to marry one of them, but which of the two 


34 


THE PIRATE. 


could only be determined when his approaching manhood 
or the inte rference of stout old Magnus, the father, should 
teach Master Mordaunt Mertoun to know his own mind. 
‘ It was a pretty thing, indeed,” they usually concluded, 
‘ that he, no native born, and possessed of no visible 
means of subsistence that is known to any one, should 
presume to hesitate, or affect to have the power of selec- 
tion and choice, betwixt the two most distinguished beau- 
ties of Zetland. If they were Magnus Troil, they would 
soon be at the bottom of the matter” — and so forth. All 
which remarks were only whispered, for the hasty dispo- 
sition of the Udaller had too much of the old Norse fire 
about it to render it safe for any one to become an un- 
authorized intermeddler with his family affairs ; and thus 
stood the relation of Mordaunt Mertoun to the family of 
Mr. Troil of Burgh-Westra, when the following incidents 
took place. 


CHAPTER IV. 


“ This is no pilgrim’s morning — yon grey mist 
Lies upon hill, and dale, and field, and forest, 

Like the dun wimple of a new-made widow ; 

And, by ray faith, although my heart be soft. 

I’d rather hear that widow weep and sigh. 

And tell the virtues of the dear departed. 

Than, when the tempest sends his voice abroad, 

Be subject to its fury. 

The Double Nuptials. 

The spring was far advanced, when, after a week spent 
n sport and festivity at Burgh-Westra, Mordaunt Mer- 
toun bade adieu to the family, pleading the necessity ol 
his return to Jarlshof. The. proposal was combated by 
the maidens, and more decidedly by Magnus himself 
He saw no occasion whatever for Mordaunt returning to 
Jarlshof. If his father desired to see him, which, by the 


THE PIRATE. 


35 


(vay, Magnus did not believe, Mr. Mertoun had only to 
throw himself into the stern of Sweyn’s boat, or betahe 
himself to a pony, if he liked a land journey better, and 
he would see not only his son, but twenty folk besides, 
who would be most happy to find that he had not lost 
the use of his tongue entirely during his long soli- 
tude ; “ although I must own,” added the worthy Udal- 
ler, “ that when he lived among us, nobody ever made 
less use of it.” 

Mordaunt acquiesced both in what respected his father’s 
taciturnity, and his dislike to general society ; but sug- 
gested, at the same time, that the first circumstance ren- 
dered his own immediate return more necessary, as he 
was the usual channel of communication betwixt his father 
and others ; and that the second corroborated the same 
necessity, since Mr. Mertoun’s having no other society 
whatever, seemed a weighty reason why his son’s should 
be restored to him without loss of time. As to his father’s 
coming to Burgh-Westra, “ they might as well,” he said, 
“ expect to see Sumburgh Cape come thither.” 

“ And that would be a cumbrous guest,” said Magnus. 
“ But you will stop for our dinner to-day ? There are the 
families of Muness, Quendale, Thorslivoe, and I know 
not who else, are expected ; and, besides the thirty that 
were in the house this blessed night, we shall have as 
many more as chamber and bower, and barn and boat- 
house, can furnish with beds, or with barley-straw, and 
you will leave all this behind you !” 

“ And the blithe dance at night,” added Brenda, in a 
tone betwixt reproach and vexation ; “ and the young 
men from the Isle of Paba that are to dance the sword- 
dance, whom shall we find to match them, for the honour 
of the Main ?” 

“ There is many a merry dancer on the main-land, 
Bi enda,” replied Mordaunt, “ even if I should never rise 
on tiptoe again. And where good dancers are found, 
Brenda Troil will always find the best partner. I must 
ti'ip it to-night through the Wastes of Dunrossness ’ 


36 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Dp not say so, Mordaunt,” said Minna, who, during 
this conversation, had been looking from the window 
something anxiously ; “ go not, to-day at least, through tlie 
Wastes of Dunrossness.” 

“ And why not to-day, Minna,” said Mordaunt, laugh- 
ing, “ any more than to-morrow ?” 

“ O, the morning mist lies heavy upon yonder chain of 
isles, nor has it permitted us since day-break even a single 
glimpse of Fitful-Head, the lofty cape that concludes yon 
splendid range of mountains. The fowl are winging their 
way to the shore, and the shelldrake seems, through the 
mist, as large as the scart.® See, the very shearwaters 
and bonxies are making to the cliffs for shelter.” 

“ And they will ride out a gale against a king’s frigate,” 
said her father 5 “ there is foul weather when they cut 
and run.” 

“ Stay, then, with us,” said Minna to her friend ; “ the 
storm will be dreadful, yet it will be grand to see it from 
Burgh-Westra, if we have no friend exposed to its fury. 
See, the air is close and sultry, though the season is yet 
so early, and the day so calm, that not a windlestraw moves 
on the heath. Stay with us, Mordaunt ; the storm 
which these signs announce will be a dreadful one.” 

“ I must be gone the sooner,” was the conclusion of 
Mordaunt, who could not deny the signs, which had not 
escaped his own quick observation. “ If the storm be 
too fierce, I will abide for the night at Stourburgh.” 

‘‘ Whait !” said Magnus ; “ will you leave us for the 
new chamberlain’s new Scotch tacksman, who is to teach 
all us Zetland savages new ways ? Take your own gate, 
my lad, if that is the song you sing.” 

“Nay,” said Mordaunt, “ I had only some curiosity 
to see the new implements he has brought.” 

“ Ay, ay, ferlies make fools fain. I would like to know 
if his new plough will bear against a Zetland rock ?” an- 
swered Magnus. 

“ I must not pass Stourburgh on the journey,” said die 
youth, deferring to his patron’s prejudice against innova- 
tion, “ if this boding weather bring on tempest , but if b 


THE PIRATE. 


3 ^ 


ily break in rain, as is most probable, I am not .ikely 
be melted in the wetting.” 

‘‘ It will not soften into rain alone,” said Minna ; “ see 
*w much heavier the clouds fall every moment, and see 
ese weather-gaws that streak the leaa-coloured mass 
'.ih partial gleams of faded red and purple.” 

“ I see them all,” said Mordaunt ; “ but they only tell 
e I have no time to tarry here. Adieu, Minna ; I will 
nd you the eagle’s feathers, if an eagle can be found on 
air-isle or Foulah. And fare thee well, my pretty Bren- 
a, and keep a thought for me, should the Paba men 
dance ever so well.” 

“ Take care of yourself, since go you will,” said both 
sisters, together. 

Old Magnus scolded them formally for supposing there 
was any danger to an active young fellow from a spring 
gale, whether by sea or land ; yet ended by giving his own 
caution a-Iso to Mordaunt, advising . him seriously to delay 
his journey, or at least to stop at Stourburgh. “ For,” 
said he, “ second thoughts are best; and as this Scottish- 
man’s howf lies right under your lee, why, take any port 
in a storm. But do not be assured to find the door on 
latch, let the storm blow ever so hard ; there are such 
matters as bolts and bars in Scotland, though, thanks to 
Saint Ronald, they are unknown here, save that great 
lock on the old Castle of Scalloway, that all men run to 
see — may be they make part of this mtxn’s improvements. 
But go, Mordaunt, since go you will. You should drink 
a stirrup-cup now, were you three years older, but boys 
should never drink, excepting after dinner ; I will drink 
it for you, that good customs may not be broken, or bad 
luck come of it. Here is your bonally, my lad.” And 
so saying, he quaffed a rummer glass of brandy with as 
much impunity as if it had been spring-water. Thus re- 
gretted and cautioned on all hands, Mordaunt took leave 
of the hospitable household, and looking back at the com- 
forts with which it was surrounded, and the dense smoke 
that rolled upwards from its chimneys, he first recollected 

VOL. I. 


38 


THE PIRATE. 


the guestless and solitary desolation of Jarlshof, then com 
pared with the sullen and moody melancholy of his fath- 
er’s temper the warm kindness of those whom he was 
leaving, and could not refrain from a sigh at the thoughts 
which forced themselves on his imagination. 

The signs of the tempest did not dishonour the predic- 
tions of Minna. Mordaunt had not advanced three hours 
on his journey, before the wind, which had been so 
deadly still in the morning, began at first to wail and sigh, 
as if bemoaning beforehand the evils which it might per- 
petrate in its fury, like a madman in the gloomy state of 
dejection which precedes his fit of violence ; then grad- 
ually increasing, the gale howled, raged, and roared, with 
the full fury of a northern storm. It was accompanied by 
showers of rain mixed with hail, that dashed with the most 
unrelenting rage against the hills and rocks with which the 
traveller was surrounded, distracting his attention, in spite 
of his utmost exertions, and rendering it very difficult for 
him to keep the direction of his journey in a country where 
there is neither road, nor even the slightest track to direct 
the steps of the wanderer, and where he is often interrupt- 
ed by brooks as well as large pools of water, lakes, and 
lagoons. All these inland waters were now lashed into 
sheets of tumbling foam, much of which, carried off by 
the fury of the whirlwind, was mingled with the gale, and 
transported far from the waves of which it had lately 
made a part ; while the salt relish of the drift which was 
pelted against his face, showed Mordaunt that the spray of 
the more distant ocean, disturbed to frenzy by the storm, 
was mingled with that of the inland lakes and streams. 

Amidst this hideous combustion of the elements, Mor- 
daunt Mertoun struggled forw^ard as one to whom such 
elemental war was familiar, and who regarded the exer- 
tions which it required to withstand its fury, but as a mark 
of resolution and manhood. He felt even, as happens 
usually to those who endure great hardships, that the ex- 
ertion necessary to subdue them, is in itself a kind of ele- 
vating triumph. To see and distinguish his path when 
he cattle were driven from the hill, and the very fowls 


THE PIRATE. 


39 


from the firmament, was but the stronger proof of his own 
superiority. “ They shall not hear of me at Burgh- 
Westra,” said he to himself, “ as they heard of old doited 
Ringan Ewenson’s boat, that foundered betwixt road- 
stead and key. J am more of a crags-man than to mind 
fire or water, wave by sea, or quagmire by land.” Thus 
he struggled on, buffeting with the storm, supplying the 
want of the usual signs by which travellers directed their 
progress, (for rock, mountain, and headland, were shroud- 
ed in mist and darkness,) by the instinctive sagacity with 
which long acquaintance with these wilds had taught him 
to mark every minute object, which could serve in such 
circumstances to regulate his course. Thus, we repeat, 
he struggled onward, occasionally standing stilb, or even 
lying down, when the gust was most impetuous ; making 
way against it when it was somewhat lulled, by a rapid 
and bold advance even in its very current ; or, when this 
was impossible, by a movement resembling that of a ves- 
sel working to windward by short tacks, but never yield- 
ing one inch of the way which he had fought so hard to 
gain. 

Yet, notwithstanding Mordaunt’s experience and reso- 
lution, his siuiation was sufficiently uncomfortable, and 
even precarious ; not because his sailor’s jacket and trow- 
sers, the common dress of young men through these isles 
when on a journey, were thoroughly wet, for that might 
have taken place within the same brief time, in any ordi- 
nary day, in this watery climate ; but the real danger was, 
that, notwithstanding his utmost exertions, he made very 
slow way through brooks that were sending their waters all 
abroad, through morasses drowned in double deluges of 
moisture, which rendered all the ordinary passes more 
than usually dangerous, and repeatedly obliged the trav- 
eller to perform a considerable circuit, which in the usual 
case was unnecessary. Thus repeatedly baffled, notwith- 
standing his youth and strength, Mordaunt, after maintain- 
ing a dogged conflict with wind, rain, and the fatigue of 
a prolonged journey, was truly happy, when, not without 
having been more than once mistaken in his road, he at 


40 


THE PIRATE. 


length found himself within sight of the hcaise of Stour 
burgh or Harfra ; for the names were indifferently given 
to the residence of Mr. Triptolemus Yellowley, who was 
the chosen missionary of the Chamberlain of Orkney and 
Zetland, a speculative person, who designed, ihroughthe 
medium of Triptolemus, to introduce into the Ultima 
Thule of the Romans a spirit of improvement, which at 
that early period was scarce known to exist in Scotland 
itself. 

At length, and with much difficulty, Mordaunt reached 
the house of this worthy agriculturist, the only refuge 
from the relentless storm which he could hope to meet with 
for several miles ; and going straight to the door, with the 
most undoubting confidence of instant admission, he was 
not a little surprised to find it not merely latched, which 
the weather might excuse, but even bolted, a thing which, 
as Magnus Troil has already intimated, was almost un- 
known in the Archipelago. To knock, to call, and finally 
to batter the door with staff and stones, were the natural 
resources of the youth, who was rendered alike impatient 
by the pelting of the storm, and by encountering such 
most unexpected and unusual obstacles to instant admis- 
sion. As he was suffered, however, for many minutes to 
exhaust his impatience in noise and clamour, without re- 
ceiving any reply, we will employ them in informing the 
reader who Triptolemus Yellowley was, and how he came 
by a name so singular. 

Old Jasper Yellowley, the father of Triptolemus, 
(though born at the foot of Roseberry-Topping,) had been 
come over by a certain noble Scottish Earl, who, proving 
too far north for canny Yorkshire, had persuaded him to 
accept of a farm in the Mearns, where, it is unnecessary to 
aod, he found matters very different from what he had 
expected. It was in vain that the stout farmer set man- 
fully to work, to counterbalance, by superior skill, the in- 
conveniences arising from a cold soil and a weeping cli- 
mate. These might have been probably overcome 5 but 
his neighbourhood to the Grampians exposed him eternal- 
ly to that species of visitation from the plaid ed gentr\ 
who dwelt within their skirts, which made young Nor- 


THE PIRATE. 


41 


val a warrior and a hero, but only converted Jasper Yel- 
lowley into a poor man. This was, indeed, balanced in 
some sort by the impression which his ruddy cheek and 
robust form had the fortune to make upon Miss Barbara 
Clinkscale, daughter to the umquhile, and sister to the 
then existing Clinkscale of that ilk. 

This was thought a horrid and unnatural union in the 
neighbourhood, considering that the house of Clinkscale 
had at least as great a shcft-e of Scottish pride as of Scot- 
tish parsimony, and was amply endowed with both. But 
Miss Babie had her handsome fortune of two thousand 
marks at her own disposal, was a woman of spirit who 
had been mq/or znA sui juris, (as the writer who drew the 
contract assured her,) for full twenty years ; so she set 
consequences and commentaries alike at defiance, and 
wedded the hearty Yorkshire yeoman. Her brother and 
her more wealthy kinsmen drew off in disgust, and al- 
most disowned their degraded relative. But the house oi 
Clinkscale was allied (like every other family in Scotland 
at the time) to a set of relations who were not so nice — 
tenth and sixteenth cousins, who not only acknowledged 
their kinswoman Babie after her marriage with Yeliow- 
ley, but even condescended to eat beans and bacon 
(though the latter was then the abomination of the* Scotch 
as much as of the Jews) with her husband, and would 
willingly have cemented the friendship by borrowing a 
little cash from him, had not his good lady (who under- 
stood trap as well as any woman in the Mearns) put a 
negative on this advance to intimacy. Indeed she knew 
how to make young Deilbelicket, old Dougald Baresword, 
the Laird of Bandybrawl, and others, pay for the hospi- 
tality which she did iTot think proper to deny them, by 
rendering them useful in her negociations with the light- 
handed lads beyond the Cairn, who, finding their late 
object of plunder was now allied to “ kend folks, and 
owned by them at kirk and market,” became satisfied, on 
a moderate yearly composition, to desist from their de 
predations. 

VOL. I. 


42 


THE PIRATE. 


This eminent success reconciled Jasper to the domm 
ior which his wife began to assume over him ; and which 
was much confirmed by her proving to be — let me see — 
what is the prettiest mode of expressing it ? — in the fam- 
ily way. On this occasion, Mrs. Yellowley had a re- 
markable dream, as is the usual practice of teeming moth- 
ers previous to the birth of an illustrious offspring. She 
“ was a-dreamed,’’ as her husband expressed it, that she 
was safely delivered of a plough, drawn by three yoke ot 
A.ngus-shire oxen ; and being a mighty investigator into 
iuch portents, she sat herself down with her gossips, to 
consider what the thing might mean. Honest Jasper ven- 
tured, with much hesitation, to intimate his own opinion, 
that the vision had reference rather to things past than 
things future, and might have been occasioned by his 
wife’s nerves having been a little startled by meeting in 
the loan above the house his own great plough with the 
six oxen, which were the pride of his heart. But the 
good cummers ^ such a hue and cry against this ex- 
position, that Jasper was fain to put his fingers in his ears, 
and to run out of the apartment. 

Hear to him,” said an old whigamore carline — “ hear 
him, wi’ his owsen, that are as an idol to him, even as the 
calf of Bethel ! — Na, na — its nae pleugh of the flesh that 
the bonnie lad-bairn — for a lad it sail be — sail e’er strid- 
dle between the stilts o’ — it’s the pleugh of the spirit — 
and I trust mysell to see him wag the head o’ him in a 
pu’pit ; or, what’s better, *on a hill-side.” 

“Now the deil’s in your whiggery,” said the old lad}- 
Glenprosing; “wad ye hae our. cummer’s bonnie lad 
bairn wag the head aff his shouthers like your godly Mess 
James Guthrie, that ye hald such a clavering about ? — 
Na, na, he sail walk a mair siccaupatb, and be a dainty 
curate — and say he should live to be a , bishop, what the 
waur wad he be ?” 

The gauntlet thus fairly flung down by one sibyl, 
was caught up by anothej^ and the controversy be- 
tween presbytery and episcopacy raged, roared, or 
rather screamed, a round of^innamon-water serving 
only like oil to the flame, till Jasper entered with the 


THE PIRATE. 


43 


pk)ugh-staft ; and by the awe of his presence, and the 
shame of misbehaving “ before the stranger man,” impos- 
ed some conditions of silence upon the disputants. 

I do not know whether it was impatience to give to the 
light a being destined to such high and doubtful fates, or 
whether poor Dame Yellowley was rather frightened at 
the hurley-burley which had taken place in her presence, 
but she was taken suddenly ill ; and, contrary to the for- 
mula in such cases used and provided, was soon reported 
to be “ a good deal worse than was to be expected.” She 
took the opportunity (having still all her wits about her) to 
extract from her sympathetic husband two promises ; first, 
that he would christen the child, whose birth was like to 
cost her so dear, by a name indicative of the vision with 
which she had been favoured ; and next, that he would 
educate him for the ministry. The canny Yorkshireman, 
thinking she had a good title at present to dictate in such 
matters, subscribed to all she required. A man-child 
was accordingly born under these conditions, but the state 
of the mother did not permit her for many days to inquire 
how far they had been complied with. When she was 
in some degree convalescent, she was informed, that as it 
was thought fit the child should be immediately christen- 
ed, it had received the name of Triptolemus ; the Cu- 
rate, who was a man of some classical skill, conceiving 
that this epithet contained a handsome and classical allu- 
sion to the visionary plough, with its triple yoke of oxen 
Mrs. Yellowley was not much delighted with the manner 
in which her request had been complied with ; but grumb- 
ling being to as little purpose as in the celebrated case of 
Tristram Shandy, she e’en sat down contented with the 
heathenish name, and endeavoured to counteract the ef- 
fects it might produce upon the taste and feelings of the 
nominee, by such an education as might put him above 
the slightest tliought ^of sacks, coulters, stilts, mould- 
boards, or any thing connected with the servile drudgery 
of the plough. 

Jasper, sage Yorkshireman, smiled slyly in his sleeve, 
conceiving that young T^ippie was likely to prove a chi^» 
3 


u 


THE PIRATE. 


of the old block, and would rather take after the joll) 
Yorkshire yeoman, than the gentle hut somewluU aigre 
blood of tlie house of Clinkscale. He remarked, ivitii 
suppressed glee, that the tune which best answered the 
purpose of a lullaby, was the “ ploughman’s whistle,” 
and the first words die infant learned to stammer, were 
the names of the oxen ; moreover, that the “ bern” pre- 
ferred home-brewed ale to Scotch twopenny, and never 
quitted hold of the tankard with so much reluctance, as 
when there had been, by some manoeuvre of Jasper’s 
own device, a double straik of malt allowed to the brew- 
ing, above that which was sanctioned by the most liberal 
recipe, of which his dame’s household thrift admitted. 
Besides this, when no other means could be fallen upon 
to divert an occasional fit of squalling, his father observed 
that Trip could be always silenced by jingling a bridle at 
his ear. From all which symptoms he used to swear in 
private, that the boy would prove true Yorkshire, and 
mother and mother’s kin would have small share of him. 

Meanwhile, and within a year after the birth of Trip- 
tolemus, Mrs. Yellowley bore a daughter, named after 
herself Barbara, who, even in earliest infancy, exhibited 
the pinched nose and thin lips by which the Clinkscale 
family were distinguished amongst the inhabitants of the 
Mearns ; and as her childhood advanced, the readiness 
with which she seized, and the tenacity wherewith she de- 
tained, the playthings of Triptolemus, besides a desire to 
bite, pinch, and scratch, on slight, or no provocation, 
were all considered by attentive observers as proofs that 
Miss Baby would prove “ her mother over again.” Ma- 
licious people did not stick to say, that the acrimony o. 
the Clinkscale blood had not, on this occasion, been cool- 
ed and sweetened by that of old England ; that young 
Deilbelicket was much about the hous^ and they could 
not but think it odd that Mrs. Yellowley, who, as the 
whole world knew, gave nothing for nothing, should be so 
jncommonly attentive to heap the trencher, and to fill the 
caup, of an idle blackguard|^ne’er-do-weel. But when 
folk had once looked upon the'‘*siustere and awfully virtu 


THE PIRATE. 


45 


ous countenance of Mrs. Yellowley, they did fud justice 
to her propriety of conduct, and Deilbelicket’s delicacy 
of taste. 

Meantime young Triptolemus, having received such 
instructions as the curate could give him, (for though 
Dame Yellowley adhered to the persecuted remnant, her 
jolly husband, edified by the black gown and prayer- 
book, still conformed to the church as by law established,) 
was, in due process of time, sent to Saint Andrews to 
prosecute his studies. He went, it is true, but with an 
eye turned back with sad remembrances on his father’s 
plough, his father’s pancakes, and his father’s ale, for 
which the small beer of the college, commonly there 
termed “ thorough-go-nimble,” furnished a poor substi- 
tute. Yet he advanced in his learning, being found, how- 
ever, to show a particular favour to such ’authors of 
antiquity as had made the improvement of the soil the 
object of tlieir researches. He endured the Bucolics of 
Virgil — the Georgies he had by heart — ^but the ^neid he 
could not away with ; and he was particularly severe 
upon the celebrated line expressing a charge of cavalry, 
because, as he understood the word putrenij* he opined 
that the combatants, in their inconsiderate ardour, gallop- 
ed over a new-manured ploughed field. Cato, the Ro- 
man Censor, was his favourite among classical heroes and 
philosophers, not on account of the strictness of his morals, 
but because of his treatise, de Re Rustica, He had ever 
in his mouth the phrase of Cicero, Jam neminem ante- 
pones Catoni. He thought well of Palladius, and of 
Terentius Varro, but Columella was his pocket-compan- 
ion. To these ancient worthies, he added the more 
modern Tusser, Hartlib, and other writers on rural eco- 
nomics, not forgetting the lucubrations of the Shepherd of 
Salisbury Plain, and such of the better-informed Philo- 
maths, who, instead of loading their almanacks with vain 
predictions of political events, pretended to see what seeds 
would grow and what would not, and direct the attention 
of their readers to that course of cultivation from which the 


* Quadrupeduinque jjutrem sonilu quatit ung^ia ceunpum 


46 


THE PIEATE. 


production of good crops may be safely predicted ; mooes! 
sages, in fine, who, careless of the rise and downfall of em- 
pires, content themselves with pointing out the fit seasons 
to reap and sow, with a fair guess at the weather which 
each month will be likely to present ; as, for example, that 
if Heaven pleases, we shall have snow in January, and the 
author will stake his reputation that July proves, on the 
whole, a month of sunshine. Now, although the Rector 
of Saint Leonard’s was greatly pleased, in general, with 
the quiet, laborious, and studious bent of Triptolemus 
Yellowley, and deemed him, in so far, worthy of a name 
of four syllables having a Latin termination, yet he rel- 
ished not, by any means, his exclusive attention to his 
favourite authors. It savoured of the earth, he said, if 
not of something worse, to have a man’s mind always 
grovelling m mould, stercorated or unstercorated ; and he 
pointed out, but in vain, history, and poetry, and divinity, 
as more elevating subjects of occupation. Triptolemus 
Yellowley was obstinate in his own course : Of the battle 
of Pharsalia, he thought not as it affected the freedom of 
the ’world, but dwelt on the rich crop which the Emathian 
fields were likely to produce the next season. In ver- 
nacular poetry, Triptolemus could scarce be prevailed 
upon to read a single couplet, excepting old Tusser, as 
aforesaid, whose Hundred Points of Good Husbandry he 
had got by heart ; and excepting also Piers Ploughman’s 
Vision, which, charmed with the title, he bought with 
avidity from a packman, but after reading the two first 
pages, flung it into the fire as an impudent and misnamed 
political libel. As to divinity, he summed that matter up 
by reminding his instructers, that to labour the earth and 
win his bread with the toil of his body and sweat of his 
brow, was the lot imposed upon fallen man ; and, for his 
part, he was resolved to discharge, to the best of his 
abilities, a task so obviously necessary to existence, leav- 
ing others to speculate as much as they would, upon the 
more recondite mysteries of theology. 

With a spirit so much narrowed and limited to the con 
cerns of rural life, it may be doubted whether the profi 


THE PIRATE. 


47 


vuency of Triptolemus in learning, or the use he was like 
(o make of his acquisitions, would have much gratified 
the ambitious hope of his affectionate mother. It is true, 
he expressed no reluctance to embrace the profession ol 
a clergyman, which suited well enough with the habitual 
personal indolence which sometimes attaches to specula- 
tive dispositions. He had views, to speak plainly, (I 
wish they were peculiar to himself,) of cultivating the 
^lede six days in the week, preaching on the seventh 
with due regularity, and dining with some fat franklin or 
country laird, with whom he could smoke a pipe and 
drink a tankard after dinner, and mix in secret confer- 
ence on the exhaustless subject. 

Quid facial laetas segetes. 

Now, this plan, besides that it indicated nothing of what 
was then called the root of the matter, implied necessa- 
rily the possession of a manse ; and the possession of a 
manse inferred compliance with the doctrines of prelacy, 
and other enormities of the time. There was some ques- 
tion how far manse and glebe, stipend, both victual and 
money, might have out-balanced the good lady’s predis- 
position towards Presbytery ; but her zeal was not put to 
so severe a trial. She died before her son had complet- 
ed his studies, leaving her afflicted spouse just as discon- 
solate as was to be expected. The first act of old Jas- 
per’s undivided administration was to recall his son from 
Saint Andrews, in order to obtain his assistance in his 
domestic labours. And here it might have been suppos- 
ed that our Triptolemus, summoned to carry into prac- 
tice what he had so fondly studied in theory, must have 
been, to use a simile which he would have thought lively, 
like a cow entering upon a clover park. Alas, mistaken 
thoughts, and deceitful hopes of mankind ! 

A laughing philosopher, the Democritus of our day, once, 
in a moral lecture, compared human life to a table pierced 
with a number of holes, each of which has a pin made ex- 
actly to fit it, but which pins being stuck in hastily, and 
without selection, chance leads inevitably to the most awk- 


48 


THE PIRATE. 


ward mistakes. “ For, how often do we see,” the orator 
pathetically concluded, — “ how often, I say, do we see 
the round man stuck into the three-cornered hole !” This 
new illustration of the vagaries of fortune set every one 
present into convulsions of laughter, excepting one fat 
alderman, who seemed to make the case his own, and 
insisted that it was no jesting matter. To take up the 
simile, however, which is an excellent one, it is plain 
that Triptolemus Yellowley had been shaken out of the 
bag at least a hundred years too soon. If he had come 
on the stage in our own time, that is, if he had flourished 
at any time within these thirty or forty years, he could 
not have missed to have held the ofiice of vice-president 
of some eminent agricultural society, and to have trans- 
acted all the business thereof under the auspices of some 
noble duke or lord, who, as the matter might happen, 
either knew, or did not know, the difference betwixt a 
horse and a cart, and a cart-horse. He could not have 
missed such preferment, for he was exceedingly learned 
' in all those particulars, w^hich, being of no consequence 
in actual practice, go, of course, a great way to constitute 
the character of a connoisseur in any art, and especially 
in agriculture. But, alas ! Triptolemus Yellowley had, 
as we already have hinted, come into the world at least a 
century too soon ; for, instead of sitting in an arm-chair, 
with a hammer in his hand, and a bumper of port before 
him, giving forth the toast, — “ To breeding, in all its 
branches,” his father planted him betwixt the stilts of a 
plough, and invited him to guide the oxen, on whose 
beauties he would, in our day, have descanted, and whose 
rumps he would not have goaded, but have carved. Old 
Jasper complained, that although no one talked so well of 
common and several, wheat and rape, fallow and lea, as 
his learned son, (whom he always called Tolimus,) yet, 
dang it,” added the Seneca, “ nought thrives wi’ un — 
nought thrives wi’ un!’’ It was still worse, when Jasper, 
becoming frail and ancient, was obliged, as happened in 
the course of a few' years, gradually to yield up the reins 
of government to the academical neophyte. 


THE PIRATE. 


49 


As if Nature had meant him a spite, he had got one 
of the dourest and most intractable farms in the Mearns, 
to try conclusions withal, a place which seemed to yield 
every thing but what the agriculturist wanted ; for there 
were plenty of thistles, which indicates dry land ; and 
store of fern, which is said to intimate deep land ; and 
nettles, which show where lime hath been applied ; and 
deep furrows in the most unlikely spots, which intimated 
that it had been cultivated in former days by the Peghts, 
as popular tradition bore. There was also enough of 
stones to keep the ground warm, according to the creed 
of some farmers, and great abundance of springs to ren- 
der it cool and sappy, according to the theory of others. 
It was in vain that, acting alternately on these opinions, 
poor Triptolemus endeavoured to avail himself of the 
supposed capabilities of the soil. No kind of butter that 
might be churned could be made to stick upon his own 
bread, any more than on that of poor Tusser, whose 
Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, so useful to others 
of his day, were never to himself worth as many pennies.^® 
In fact, excepting an hundred acres of infield, to which 
old Jasper had early seen the necessity of limiting his 
labours, there was not a corner of the farm fit for any 
thing but to break plough-graith, aud kill cattle. And 
then, as for the part w’hich was really tilled with some 
profit, the expense of the farming establishment of Trip- 
tolemus, and his disposition to experiment, soon got rid 
of any good arising from the cultivation of it. “ The 
carles and the cart-avers,” he confessed, with a sigh, 
speaking of his farm-servants and horses, “ make it all, 
and the carles and cart-avers eat it all a conclusion 
which might sum up the year-book of many a gentleman- 
farmer. 

Matters would have soon been brought to a close with 
Triptolemus in the present day. He would have got a 
bank-credit, manoeuvred with wind-bills, dashed out upon 
a large scale, and soon have seen his crop and stock se- 
questered by the Sheriff ; but in those days a man could 

VOL. I 


50 


THE PIRATE. 


not ruin himself so easily. The whole Scottish tenantr) 
stood upon the same level flat of poverty, so that it was 
extremely difficult to find any vantage ground, by climb- 
ing up to which a man might have an opportunity of actu- 
ally breaking his neck with some eclat. They were 
pretty much in the situation of people, who, being totally 
without credit, may indeed suffer from indigence, but 
cannot possibly become bankrupt. Besides, notwith- 
standing the failure of Triptolemus’s projects, there was 
to be balanced against the expenditure which they occa- 
sioned, all the savings which the extreme economy of his 
sister Barbara could effect ; and in truth her exertions 
were wonderful. She might have realized, if any one 
could, the idea of the learned philosopher, who pronounc- 
ed that sleeping was a fancy, and eating but a habit, and 
who appeared to the world to have renounced both, until 
it was unhappily discovered that he had an intrigue with 
the cook-maid of the family, who indemnified him for his 
privations by giving him private entree to the pantry and 
to a share of her own couch. But no such deceptions 
were practised by Barbara Yellowley. She was up early, 
and down late, and seemed, to her over-watched and 
over-tasked maidens, to be as wakerife as the cat herself. 
Then, for eating, it appeared that the air was a banquet 
to her, and she would fain have made it so to her retinue. 
Her brother, who, besides being lazy in his person, w^as 
somewhat luxurious in his appetite, would willingly now 
and then have tasted a mouthful of animal food, were it 
but to know how his sheep were fed off ; but a proposal 
to eat a child could not have startled Mistress Barbara 
more ; and, being of a compliant and easy disposition, 
Triptolemus reconciled himself to the necessity of a 
perpetual Lent, too happy when he could get a scrap oi 
butter to his oaten cake, or (as they lived on the banks oi 
the Esk,) escape the daily necessity of eating salmon, 
whether in or out of season, six days out of the seven. 

But although Mrs. Barbara brought faithfully to the 
joint stock all savings which her awful powers of econo- 


THE PIRATE. 


51 


my accomplished to scrape together, and although the 
dower of their mother was by degrees expended, or 
nearly so, in aiding them upon extreme occasions, the 
term at length approached when it seemed impossible 
that they could sustain the conflict any longer against the 
evil star of Triptolemus, as he called it himself, or the 
natural result ojf his absurd speculations, as it was termed 
by others. Luckily at this sad crisis, a god jumped down 
to their relief out of a machine. In plain English, the 
noble lord, who owned their farm, arrived at his mansion- 
house in their neighbourhood, with his coach and six and 
his running footmen, in the full splendour of the seven- 
teenth century. 

This person of quality was the son of the nobleman 
who had brought the ancient Jasper into the country from 
Yorkshire, and he was, like his father, a fanciful and 
scheming rnan.^^ He had schemed well for himself, how- 
ever, amid the mutations of the time, having obtained for 
a certain period of years, the administration of the re- 
mote islands of Orkney and Zetland, for payment of a 
certain rent, with the right of making the most of what- 
ever was the property or revenue of the crown in these 
districts, under the title of Lord Chamberlain. Now, his 
lordship had become possessed with a notion, in itself a 
very true one, that much might be done to render this 
grant available, by improving the culture of the crown 
lands, both in Orkney and Zetland ; and then, having 
some acquaintance with our friend Triptolemus, he thought 
(rather less happily,) that he might prove a person capable 
of furthering his schemes. He sent for him to the great 
Hall-house, and was so much edified by the way in which 
our friend laid down the law upon every given subject re- 
lating to rural economy, that he lost no time in securing the 
co-operation of so valuable an assistant, the first step being 
to release him from his present unprofitable farm. 

The terms were arranged much to the mind of Trip- 
tolemus, who had already been taught, by many years 
experience, a dark sort of notion, that without underval- 
uing or doubting for a moment his own skill, it would be 
quite as well that almost all the trouble and risk should be 


52 


THE PI HATE. 


at the expense of his employer. Indeed the hop o 
advantage which he held out to his patron were so con- 
siderable, that the Lord Chamberlain dropped every idea 
of admitting his dependent into any share of the expected 
profits ; for rude as the arts of agriculture were in Scot- 
land, they were far superior to those known and practised 
in the regions of Thule, and Triptolemus Yellowley con- 
ceived himself to be possessed of a degree of insight into 
these mysteries, far superior to what was possessed or prac- 
tised even in the Mearns. The improvement, therefore, 
which was to be expected, would bear a double propor- 
tion, and the Lord Chamberlain was to reap all the profit, 
deducting a handsome salary for his steward Yellowley, 
together with the accommodation of a house and domes- 
ic farm, for the support of his family. Joy seized the 
iieart of Mistress Barbara, at hearing this happy termi- 
nation of what threatened to be so very bad an affair as 
the lease of Cauldacres. 

‘ If we cannot,” she said, “ provide for our own 
house, when all is coming in, and nothing going out, surely 
we must be worse than infidels.” 

Triptolemus was a busy man for some time, huffing 
and puffing, and eating and drinking in every change- 
house, while he ordered and collected together proper 
implements of agriculture, to be used by the natives of 
these devoted islands, whose destinies were menaced with 
this formidable change. Singular tools these would seem, 
if presented before a modern agricultural society ; but 
every thing Is relative, nor could the heavy cart-load oi 
limbe^*, called the old Scots plough, seem less strange to 
a Scottish farmer of this present day, than the coi biets 
and casques of the soldiers of Cortes might seem to a 
regiment of our own army. Yet the latter conquered 
Mexico, and undoubtedly the former would have been a 
splendid improvement on the state of agriculture in 
Thule. 

We have never been able to learn why Triptolemus 
preferred fixing his residence in Zetland, to becoming an 
inhabitant of tlie Orkneys. Perhaps he thought the in- 


THE PIRATE. 


63 


habitants of the latter Archipelago the more simple and 
docile of the two kindred tribes ; or perhaps he consid- 
ered the situation of the house and farm he himself was 
to occupy, (which was indeed a tolerable one,) as prefer- 
able to that which he had it in his power to have obtain- 
ed upon Pomona, (so the main island of the Orkneys is 
entitled.) At Harfra, or, as it was sometimes called, 
Stourburgh, from the remains of a Pictish fort, which 
was almost close to the mansion-house, the factor settled 
himself, in the plenitude of his authority ; determined to 
honour the name he bore by his exertions, in precept and 
example, to civilize the Zetlanders, and improve tlieir 
very confined knowledge in the primary arts of human 
life. 


CHAPTER V. 


The wind blew keen frae north and east ; 

It blew upon the floor. 

Quo’ our goodman to our goodwife, 

“ Get up and bar the door.” 

My hand is in my housewife-skep, 

Goodman, as ye may see ; 

If it shouldna be barr’d this hundred years, 

It’s no be barr’d for me.” Ola Song. 

We can only hope that the gentle reader has not found 
the latter part of the last chapter extremely tedious ; but. 
at any rate, his impatience will scarce equal that of young 
Mordaunt Mertoun, who, while the lightning came flash 
after flash, while the wind, veering and shifting from point 
to point, blew with all the fury of a hurricane, and whilp 
the rain was dashed against him in deluges, stood ham- 
mering, calling, and roaring at the door of the old Place 
of Harfra, impatien: for admittance, and at a loss to con- 
ceive any position c f existing circumstances, which could 
VOL. I. 


54 


THE PIRATE. 


occasion the exclusion of a stranger, especia/ly during 
such liorrible weather. At length, finding his noise and 
vociferation were equally in vain, he fell back so far from 
the front of the house as was necessary to enable ^im to 
reconnoitre the chimneys ; and amidst “ storm and 
shade,*’ could discover, to the increase of his dismay, 
that though noon, then the dinner hour of these islands, 
was now nearly arrived, there was no smoke proceeding 
from the tunnels of the vents to give any note of prepa- 
ration within. 

Mordaunt’s wrathful impatience was now changed into 
sympathy and alarm ; for, so long accustomed to the ex- 
uberant hospitality of the Zetland islands, he was imme- 
diately induced to suppose some strange and unaccounta- 
ble disaster had befallen the family ; and forthwith set 
nimself to discover some place at which he could make 
forcible entry, in order to ascertain the situation of the 
inmates, as much as to obtain shelter from the still increas- 
ing storm. His present anxiety was, however, as much 
thrown away as his late clamorous importunities for ad- 
mittance had been. Triptolemus and his sister had heard 
the whole alarm without, and had already had a sharp 
dispute on the propriety of opening the door. 

Mrs. Baby, as we have described her, was no wdling 
renderer of the rites of hospitality. In their larm of 
Cauldacres, in the Mearns, she had been tlie dread 
and abhorrence of all gaberlunzie men, and travelling 
packmen, gipsies, long remembered beggars, and so torth ; 
nor was there one of them so wily, as she used to boast, 
as could ever say they had heard the clink of her sneck. 
In Zetland, where the new settlers were yet strangers to 
the extreme honesty and simplicity of all classes, suspj - 
cion and fear joined with frugality in her desire to ex- 
clude all wandering guests of uncertain character ; and 
the second of these motives had its effect on Triptolemus 
himself, who, though neither suspicious nor penurious., 
knew good people were scarce, good farmers scarcer, and 
had a reasonable share of that wisdom which looks towards 
self-preservation as the first law of natu' 3. These hints 


THE PIRATE. 


65 


may serve as a commentary on the following dia.ogue 
which took place, betwixt the brother and sister. 

“ Now good be gracious to us,” said Triptolemus, a® 
he sat thumbing his old school-copy of Virgil, “ here is 
a pure day for the bear seed ! — Well spoke the wise Man- 
tuan — ventis surgentibus — and then the groans of the 
mountains, and the long resounding shores — but where’s 
the woods. Baby ? tell me, I say, where we shall find the 
nemorum murmur, sister Baby, in these new seats ol 
ours ?” 

“ What’s your foolish will ?” said Baby, popping her 
head from out of a dark recess in the kitchen, where she 
was busy about some nameless deed of housewifery. 

Her brother, who had addressed himself to her more 
from habit than intention, no sooner saw her bleak red 
nose, keen grey eyes- with the sharp features thereunto 
conforming, shaded by the flaps of the loose toy which 
depended on each side of her eager face, than he be- 
thought himself that his query was likely to find little ac- 
ceptation from her, and therefore stood another volley 
before he would resume the topic. 

“ I say, Mr. Yellowley,” said sister Baby, coming into 
the middle of the room, “what for are ye crying on me, 
and me in the midst of my house wife-skep ?” 

“ Nay, for nothing at all. Baby,” answered Triptolemus, 
“ saving that I was saying to myself, that here we had the 
sea, and the wind, and the rain sufficient enough, but 
where’s the wood ? where’s the wood. Baby ? answer me 
that.” 

“ The wood ?” replied Baby — “ Were I no to take- 
better care of the wood than you, brother, there would 
soon be no more wood about the town than the barber’s 
block that’s on your own shoulders, Triptolemus. If ye 
be thinking of the wreck-wood that the callants brought 
in yesterday, there was six ounces of it gaed to boil your 
parritch this morning ; though, I trow, a carefu’ man 
wad have ta’en drammock, if breakfast he behoved to 
have, rather than waste baith meltith and fuel in the 


lame mr>rning. 


56 


THE PIRATE. 


“ That IS to say, Baby,” replied Triptolemus, who was 
somewhat of a dry joker in his way, “ that when we 
have fire we are not to have food, and when we have food 
we are not to have fire, these being too great blessings to 
enjoy both in the same day ! Good luck, you do not pro- 
pose we should starve with cold and starve with hunger 
unico contextu ? But to tell you the truth, I could never 
away with raw oatmeal, sleekened with water, in all my 
life. Call it drammock, or crowdie, or just what ye list, 
my vivers must thole fire and water.” 

“ The mair gowk you,” said Baby ; ‘‘ can ye not 
make your brose on the Sunday, and sup them cauld on 
the Monday, since ye’re sae dainty ? Mony is the fairer 
face than yours that has licked the lip after such a 
cogfu’.” 

“ Mercy on us, sister !” said Triptolemus ; “ at this 
rate, it’s a finished field with me — I must unyoke the 
pleugh, and lie down to wait for the dead-thraw. Here 
is that in this house wad hold all Zetland in meal for a 
twelvemonth, and ye grudge a cogfu’ of warm parritch to 
me, that has sic a charge !” 

“ Whisht — -hold your silly clavering tongue,” said 
Baby, looking round with apprehension — “ ye are a wise 
man to speak of what is in the house, and a fitting man to 
have the charge of it. — Hark, as I live by bread, I hear 
a tapping at the outer yett !” 

“ Go and open it then. Baby,” said her brother, glad 
at anything that promised to interrupt the dispute. 

“ Go and open it, said he !” echoed Baby, half angry, 
half frightened, and half triumphant, at the superiority 
of her understanding over that of her brother — “ Go and 
open it, said he, indeed ! — is it to lend robbers a chance 
to take all that is in the house ?” 

“ Robbers !” echoed Triptolemus in his turn; — “there 
are no more robbers in this country than there are lambs 
at Yule. I tell you, as I have told you an hundred 
times, there are no Highlandmen to harry us here. This 
is a land of quiet and honesty. O fortunati nimium 1^' 


THE PIRATE. 


hi 

* * And what good is St. Rinian to do ye, Tolemus ?” 

said his sister, mistaking the quotation for a Catholic in 
vocation. “ Besides, if there be no Highlandmen, there 
may be as bad. I saw sax or seven as ill-looking chieldf 
gang past the place yesterday, as ever came frae beyont 
Clochna-ben ; ill-fa’red tools they had in their hands, 
whaaling knives they ca’d them, but they looked as like 
dirks and whingers as ae bit aim can look like anither. 
There is nae honest men carry siccan tools.” 

Here the knocking and shouts of Mordaunt were very 
audible betwixt every swell of the horrible blast which 
was careering without. The brother and sister looked at 
each other in real perplexity and fear. “ If they have 
heard of the siller,” said Baby, her very nose changing 
with terror from red to blue, “ we are but gane folk !” 

‘‘ Who speaks now, when they should hold their 
tongue ?” said Triptolemus. “ Go to the shot-window 
instantly, and see how many there are of them, while 1 
load the old Spanish-barrelled duck-gun — go as if you 
were stepping on new-laid eggs.” 

Baby crept to the window, and reported that she saw 
only “ one young chield, clattering and roaring as gin he 
were daft. How many there might be out of sight, she 
could not say.” 

Out of sight ! — nonsense,” said Triptolemus, laying 
aside the ramrod with which he was loading the piece, 
with a trembling hand. “ I will warrant them out of 
sight and hearing both — this is some poor fellow catched 
in the tempest, wants the shelter of our roof, and a little 
refreshment. Open the door. Baby, it’s a Christian 
deed.” 

“ But is it a Christian deed of him to come in at the 
window then ?” said Baby, setting up a most doleful 
shriek, as Mordaunt Mertoun, who had forced open one 
of the windows, leaped down into the apartment, dripping 
with water like a river god. Triptolemus, in great trib- 
ulation, presented the gun which he had not yet loaded 
while the intruder exclaimed, “ Hold, bold — what the 
devil mean you by keeping your doors bolted 'n weather 


58 


THE PIRATE. 


ike this, and levelling your gun at folk’s heads as you- 
would at a sealgh’s ?” 

‘‘ And who are you, friend, and what want you ?” said 
Triptolemus, lowering the but of his gun to the floor as 
he spoke, and so recovering his arms. 

“ What do I want !” said Mordaunt ; “ I want every 
thing — I want meat, drink, and fire, a bed for the night, 
and a sheltie for to-morrow morning to carry me to Jarls- 
hof.” 

“ And ye said there were nae caterans or sorners 
here ?” said Baby to the agriculturist, reproachfully. 
“ Heard ye ever a breekless loon frae Lochaber tell his 
mind and his errand mair deftly ? — Come, come, friend,” 
she added, addressing herself to Mordaunt, “ put up 
your pipes and gang your gate ; this is the house of his 
Lordship’s factor, and no place of resett for thiggers or 
sorners.” 

Mordaunt laughed in her face at the simplicity of the 
request. “ Leave built walls,” he said, “ and in such 
a tempest as this ? What take you me for ? — a gannet or 
a scart do you think I am, that your clapping your hands 
and skirling at me like a mad woman, should drive me 
from the shelter into the storm ?” 

“ And so you propose, young man,” said Triptolemus, 
gravely, “ to stay in my house, volens nolens — tliat is 
whether we will or no ?” 

“ Will !” said Mordaunt ; “ what right have you to 
will anything about it? Do you not hear the thunder ? 
Do you not hear the rain ? Do you not see the lightning? 
And do you not know this is the only house within I wot 
not how many miles ? Come, my good master and dame, 
this may be Scottish jesting, but it sounds strange in Zet- 
land ears You have let out the fire too, and my teeth 
are dancing a jig in my head with cold ; but I’ll soon 
out that to rights. ” 

He seized the fire-tongs, raked together the embers 
ipon the hearth, broke up into life the gathering-peal 
which the hostess had calculated should have preserved 
the seeds of fire, without giving them forth, for many 


THE PIRATE. 


69 


hours ; then casting his eye round, saw in a corner the 
stock of drift wood, which Mistress Baby had served 
forth by ounces, and transferred two or three logs of it 
at once to the hearth, which, conscious of such unwonted 
supply, began to transmit to the chimney such a smoke 
as had not issued from the Place of Harfra for many a 
day. 

While their uninvited guest was thus making himself 
at home. Baby kept edging and jogging the factor to turn 
out the intruder. But for this undertaking, Triptolemus 
Yellowley felt neither courage nor zeal, nor did circum- 
stances seem at all to warrant the favourable conclusion 
of any fray into which he might enter with the young stran- 
ger. The sinewy limbs and graceful form of Mordaunt 
Mertoun were seen to great advantage in his simple sea- 
dress ; and with his dark sparkling eye, finely formed 
head, animated features, close curled dark hair, and bold 
free looks, the stranger formed a very strong contrast with 
the host on whom he had intruded himself. Triptolemus 
was a short, clumsy, duck-legged disciple of Ceres, 
whose bottle-nose, turned up and handsomely coppered 
at the extremity, seemed to intimate something of an oc- 
casional treaty with Bacchus. It was like to be no equal 
rnellay betwixt persons of such unequal form and strength ; 
and the difference betwixt twenty and fifty years was 
nothing in favour of the weaker party. Besides, the fac- 
tor was an honest good-natured fellow at bottom, and 
being soon satisfied that his guest had no other views than 
those of obtaining refuge from the storm, it would, de- 
spite his sister’s instigations, have been his last act to deny 
a boon so reasonable and necessary to a youth whose 
exterior was so prepossessing. He stood, therefore, 
considering how he could most gracefully glide into the 
character of the hospitable landlord, oiit of that of the 
churlish defender of his domestic castle, against an un- 
authorized intrusion, when Baby, who had stood appalled 
at the extreme familiarity of the stranger’s address and 
demeanour, now spoke up for herself. 


60 


THE PIRATE. 


“ My troth, lad,” said she to Mordaunt, “ ye are m. 
blate, to light on at that rate, and the best of wood too — - 
nane of your sharney peats, but good aik timber, nae less 
maun serve ye !” 

‘‘ You come lightly by it, dame,” said Mordaunt, care- 
lessly ; “ and you should not grudge to the fire what the 
sea gives you for nothing. These good ribs of oak did 
their last duty upon earth and ocean, when they could hold 
no longer together under the brave hearts that manned 
the bark.” 

“ And that’s true, too,” said the old woman, softening 
— this maun be awsome weather by sea. Sit down 
and warm ye, since the sticks are a-low.” 

“ Ay, ay,” said Triptolemus, ‘‘ it is a pleasure to see 
siccan a bonny bleeze. I havena seen the like o’t since 
I left Cauldacres.” 

“ And shallna see the like o’t again in a hurry,” said 
Baby, “ unless the house take fire, or there suld be a 
coal-heugh found out.” 

“ And wherefore should not there be a coal-heugh 
found out ?” said the factor, triumphantly — “ I say, 
wherefore should not a coal-heugh be found out in Zet- 
land as well as in Fife, now that the Chamberlain has a 
far-sighted and discreet man upon the spot to make the 
necessary perquisitions ? They are baith fishing-stations, 
I trow?” 

“ I tell you what it is, Tolemus Yellowley,” answered 
his sister, who had practical reasons to fear her broth- 
er’s opening upon any false scent, “ if you promise my 
Lord sae mony of these bonnie-wallies, we’ll no be weel 
hafted here before we are found out and set a-trotting 
again. If ane was to speak to ye about a gold mine, I 
ken weel wha would promise he suld have Portugal pieces 
clinking in his pouch before the year gaed by.” 

“ And why suld I not ?” said Triptolemus — “ may be 
your head does not know there is a land in Orkney called 
Ophir, or something very like it ; and wherefore might 
not Solomon, the wise King of the Jews, have sent thither 
his ships and his servants for four hundred and fifty tab 


THE PIRATE. 


61 


ents ? I trow he knew best where to go or send, and 1 
hope you believe in your Bible, Baby ?” 

Baby was silenced by an appeal to Scripture, however 
mal-apropoSf and only answered by an inarticulate humph 
of incredulity or scorn, while her brother went on ad- 
dressing Mordaunt. — “ Yes, you shall all of you see what 
a change shall coin introduce, even into such an unpro- 
pitious country as yours. Ye have not heard of copper, 
I warrant, nor of iron-stone, in these islands neither ?” 
Mordaunt said he had heard there was copper near the 
cliffs of Koningsburgh. “ Ay, and a copper scum is 
found on the Loch of Swana too, young man. But the 
youngest of you, doubtless, thinks himself a match for 
such as I am!” 

Baby, who during all this while had been closely and 
accurately reconnoitering the youth’s person, now inter- 
posed in a manner by her brother totally unexpected. 
“ Ye had mair need, Mr. Yellowley, to give the young 
man some dry clothes, and to see about getting something 
for him to eat, than to sit there bleezing away with your 
lang tales, as if the weather were not windy enow with- 
out vour help ; and maybe the lad would drink some 
bland, or siclike, if ye had the grace to ask him.” 

While Triptolemus looked astonished at such a propo- 
sal, considering the quarter it came from, Mordaunt an- 
swered, he ‘‘ should be very glad to have dry clothes, 
but begged to be excused from drinking until he had eaten 
somewhat.” 

Triptolemus accordingly conducted him into another 
apartment, and accommodating him with a change of 
dress, left him to his arrangements, while he himself re- 
turned to the kitchen, much puzzled to account for his 
sister’s unusual fit of hospitality. “ She must be/ey,”^ 
he said, ‘‘ and in that case has not long to live, and though 


^ When a person changes his condition suddenly, as when a miser becomes 
liberal, or a cnurl good-humoured, he is said, in Scotch, to hefetj ; that .s, pre- 
dest ned to speedy death, of which such mutations of humour are received as a 
sure indication. 

VOL. 1. 


52 


THE PIRATE. 


I fall heir to her tocher-good, I am sorry for it ; for she 
has held the house-gear well together — drawn the girth 
over tight it may be now and then, but the saddle sits the 
better.” 

When Triptolemus returned to the kitchen, he found 
nis suspicions confirmed ; for his sister was in the despe- 
rate act of consigning to the pot a smoked goose, 
which, with others of the same tribe, had long hung in 
the large chimney, muttering to herself at the same time, 
— “ It maun be eaten sune or syne, and what for no by 
the puir callant?” 

“ What is this of it, sister ?” said Triptolemus. “ You 
have on the girdle and the pot at ance. What day is this 
wi’ you ?” 

E’en such a day as the Israelites had beside the flesh- 
pots of Egypt, billie Triptolemus ; but ye little ken wha 
ye have in your house this blessed day.” 

“ Troth, and little do I ken,” said Triptolemus, as 
little as I would ken the naig I never saw before. I would 
take the lad for a jagger^but he has rather ower good 
havings, and he has no pack.” 

“ Ye ken as little as ane of your ain bits o’ nowt, man,” 
•etorted sister Baby ; “ if ye kenna him, do ye ken 
Tronda Dronsdaughter?” 

“ Tronda Dronsdaughter !” echoed Triptolemus — 
“ how should I but ken her, when I pay her twal pennies 
Scots by the day, for working in the house here ? I trow 
she works as if the things burned her fingers. I had bet- 
ter give a Scots lass a groat of English siller.” 

“ And that’s the maist sensible word ye have said this 
blessed morning. — ^Weel, but Tronda kens this lad weel, 
and she has often spoke to me about him. They call 
his father the Silent Man of Sumburgh, and they say he’s 
uncanny.” 

“ Hout, hout — nonsense, nonsense — they are aye at 
sic trash as that,” said th<^ brother, “ when you want a 
day’s wark out of tnem — they have stepped ower the 
tangs, or they have met an uncanny body, or they have 


THE PIRATE. 


63 


turned about the boat against the sun, and then there’s 
nought to be done that day.” 

“ Weel, weel, brother, ye are so wise,” said Baby, 

because ye knapped Latin at Saint Andrews ; and can 
your lair tell me then what the lad has round his halse ?” 

“ A Barcelona napkin, as wet as a dishclout, and I 
have just lent him one of my own overlays,” said Trip- 
tolemus. 

‘‘ A Barcelona napkin !” said Baby, elevating her 
voice, and then suddenly lowering it, as from apprehen- 
sion of being overheard — I say a gold chain.” 

‘‘ A gold chain !” said Triptolemus. 

“ In troth is it, hinny ; and how like you that ? The 
folk say here, as Tronda tells me, that the King of the 
Drows gave it to his father, the Silent Man of Sumburgh.” 

“ I wish you would speak sense, or be the silent wo- 
man,” said Triptolemus. “ The upshot of it all is, then, 
that this lad is the rich stranger’s son, and that you are 
giving him the goose you were to keep till Michaelmas !” 

“ Troth, brother, we maun do something for God’s 
sake, and to make friends ; and the lad,” added Baby, 
(for even she was not altogether above the prejudices 
of her sex in favour of outward form,) “ the lad has a 
fair face of his ain.” 

“Ye would have let mony a fair face,” said Triptole- 
mus, “ pass the door pining, if it had not been for the 
gold chain.” 

“ Nae doubt, nae doubt,” replied Barbara ; “ ye wad 
not have me waste our substance on every thigger or sor- 
ner that has the luck to come by the door in a wet day ? 
but this lad has a fair and a wide name in the country, 
and Tronda says he is to be n^arried to a daughter of the 
rich Udaller, Magnus Troil, and the marriage-day is to be 
fixed whenever he makes choice (set him up) between 
the twa lasses ; and so it wad be as much as our good 
name is worth, and our quiet forby, to let him sit unserv 
ed, although he does come unsent for.” 

“ The best reason in life,” said Triptolemus, “ for let- 
ting a man into a house is, that you dare not bid him go 


64 


THE PIRATE. 


by. However, since there is a man of quality amongst 
them, I will let him know whom he has to do with, in my 
person.” Then advancing to the door, he exclaimed, 
“ Heus iibi, Dave /” 

“ answered the youth, entering the apartment. 

“ Hem !” said the erudite Triptoleraus, ‘‘ not alto- 
gether deficient in his humanities, I see. I will try him 
further. — Canst thou aught of husbandry, young gentle- 
man ?” 

“ Troth, sir, not I,” answered Mprdaunt ; “ I have 
been trained to plough upon the sea, and to reap upon 
the crag.” 

‘‘ Plough the sea !” said Triptolemus ; ‘‘ that’s a fur- 
row requires small harrowing ; and for your harvest on 
the crag, I suppose you mean these scoivries, or whatever 
you call them. It is a sort of in-gathering which the ran- 
zelman should stop by the law ; nothing more likely to 
break an honest man’s bones. I profess I cannot see the 
pleasure men propose by dangling in a rope’s-end betwixt 
earth and heaven. In my case, I had as lief the other 
end of the rope were fastened to the gibbet 5 I should be 
sure of not falling, at least.” 

“ Now, I would only advise you to try it,” replied Mor- 
daunt. Trust me, the world has few grander sensations 
than when one is perched in mid-air between a high-brow- 
ed cliff and a roaring ocean, the rope by which you are 
sustained seeming scarce stronger than a silken thready 
and the stone on which you have one foot steadied, afford- 
ing such a breadth as the kittywake might rest upon — to 
feel and know all this with the full confidence that your 
own agility of limb, and strength of head, can bring you 
as safe off as if you had the wing of the gosshawk — 
this is indeed being almost independent of the earth you 
tread onl” 

Triptolemus stared at this enthusiastic description ol 
an amusement which had so few charms for him ; and bis 
lister, looking at the glancing eye and elevated bearing ol 
the young adventurer, answered, by ejaculating, My 
Gertie, lad, but ye are a brave chield!” 


THE PIRATE. 


65 


“ A brave chield ?” returned Yellowley, — “ I say a 
brave goose, to be flichtering and fleeing in the wind 
when he might abide upon terra firma! But come, here’s 
a goose that is more to the purpose, when once it is well 
boiled. Get us trenchers and salt. Baby — but in truth it 
will prove salt enough — a tasty morsel it is ; but I think 
the Zetlandersbe the only folk in the world that think of 
running such risks to catch geese, and then boiling them 
when they have done.” 

‘‘ To be sure,” replied his sister, (it was the only word 
they had agreed in that day,) “ it would be an unco thing 
to bid ony gudewife in Angus or a’ the Mearns boil a 
goose, while there was sic things as spits in the warld. — 
But wha’s this neist ?” she added, looking towards the 
entrance with great indignation. “ My certie, open doors 
and dogs come in— and wha opened the door to him ?” 

“ I did, to be sure,” replied Mordaunt ; “ you would 
not have a poor devil stand beating your deaf door-cheeks 
in weather like this ? — Here goes something, though, to 
ibelp the fire,” he added, drawing out the sliding bai of 
oak with which the door had been secured, and throwing 
it on the hearth, whence it was snatched by Dame Baby 
in great wrath, she exclaiming at the same time, — 

“ It’s sea-borne tinriber, as there’s little else here, and 
he dings it about as if it were a fir-clog ! — And who be 
you, an it please you ?” she added, turning to the stran- 
ger — “ a very hallanshaker loon, as ever crossed my 
twa een!” 

“ I am a jagger, if it like your ladyship,” replied 
the uninvited guest, a stout, vulgar little man, who had 
indeed the humble appearance of a pedlar, called jagger 
in these islands — “ never travelled in a waur day, or was 
more willing to get to harbourage. — Heaven be praised 
for fire and house-room !” 

So saying, he drew a stool to the fire, and sat down 
without further ceremony. Dame Baby stared “ wild as 
^^rey gosshawk,” and was meditating how to express her 
indignation in something warmer than words, for which 

VOL. I. 


66 


THE PIRATE. 


the boiling pot .seemed to offer a convenient hint, when 
an old half-starved serving-woman, — the Tronda already 
mentioned — the sharer of Barbara’s domestic cares, wdio 
had been as yet in some remote corner of the mansion, 
now hobbled into the room, and broke out into exclama- 
tions which indicated some new cause of alarm. 

“ O master !” and O mistress !” were the only sounds 
she could for some time articulate, and then followed 
them up with, ‘‘ The best in the house — the best in the 
nouse — set a’ on the board, and a’ will be little aneugh — 
there is auld Norna of Fitful-head, the most fearful wo- 
man in all the isles !” 

“ Where can she have been wandering ?” said Mor- 
daunt, not without some apparent sympathy with the sur- 
prise, if not with the alarm, of the old domestic ; “ but 
It is needless to ask — the worse the' weather, the more 
likely is she to be a traveller.” 

“ What new tramper is this ?” echoed the distracted 
Baby, whom the quick succession of guests had driven 
well nigh crazy with vexation. “ I’ll soon settle her wan- 
dering, I sail warrant, if my brother has but the saul of a 
man in him, or if there be a pair of jougs at Scalloway!” 

“ The iron was never forged on stithy that would hauld 
her,” said the old maid-servant. ‘‘ She comes — she 
comes — God’s sake speak her fair and canny, or we will 
have a ravelled hasp on the yarnwindles.” 

As she spoke, a woman tall enough almost to touch the 
top of the door with her cap, stepped into the room, sign- 
ing the cross as she entered, and pronouncing, with a 
solemn voice, “ The blessing of God and Saint Ronald 
on the open door, and their broad malison and mine upon 
close-handed churls !” 

“ And wha are ye, that are sae bauld wi’ your blessing 
and banning in other folk’s houses ? What kind of coun- 
try is this, that folk cannot sit quiet for an hour, and serve 
heaven, and keep their bit gear thegither, without gangrel 
»nen and women coming thigging and sorning ane after 
anorher, like a string of wild-geese ?” 


THE PIRATE. 


67 


This speech, the understanding reader will easily sad- 
dle on Mistress Baby, and what effects it might have pro- 
duced on the last stranger, can only be matter of conjec- 
ture ; for the old servant and Mordaunt applied themselves 
at once to the party addressed, in order to deprecate her 
resentment ; the former speaking to her some words of 
Norse, in a tone of intercession, and Mordaunt saying in 
English, “ They are strangers, Norna, and know not your 
name or qualities ; they are unacquainted, too, with the 
ways of this country, and therefore we must hold them 
excused for their lack of hospitality.” 

“ I lack no hospitality, young man,” said Triptolemus, 
“ miseris succurrere disco — the goose that was destined 
to roost in the chimney till Michaelmas, is boiling in the 
pot for you ; but if we had twenty geese, I see we are 
like to find mouths to eat them every feather — this must 
be amended.” 

“ What must be amended, sordid slave ?” said the 
stranger Norna, turning at once upon him with an empha- 
sis that made him start — ‘‘ What must be amended.? 
Bring hither, if thou wilt, thy new-fangled coulters, spades, 
and harrows, alter the implements of our fathers from the 
ploughshare to the mouse-trap ; but know thou art in the 
land that was won of old by the flaxen-haired Kempions 
of the North, and leave us their hospitality at least, to 
show we come of what was once noble and generous. 1 
say to you beware — while Norna looks forth at the mea- 
sureless waters from the crest of Fitful-head, something 
is yet left that resembles power of defence. If the men 
of Thule have ceased ta be champions, and to spread 
the banquet for the raven, the women have not forgot- 
ten the arts that lifted them of yore into queens and 
prophetesses.” 

The woman who pronounced this singular tirade, was 
as striking in appearance as extravagantly lofty in her 
pretensions and in her language. She might well have 
represented on tlTe stage, so far as features, voice, and 
stature were concerned, the Bonduca or Boadicea of the 
Britons, or the sage Velleda, Aiirinia, or any other laied 
4 


68 


THE PIRATE. 


P} thoness, who ever led to battle a tribe of the ancient 
Goths. Her features were high and well formed, ana 
would have been handsome but for the ravages ol time, 
and the effects of exposure to the severe weather of her 
country. Age, and perhaps sorrow, had quenched, in 
some degree, the fire of a dark-blue eye, whose hue al- 
most approached to black, and had sprinkled snow on 
such parts of her tresses as had escaped from under her 
cap, and were dishevelled by the rigour of the storm. 
Her upper garment, which dropped with water, was of a 
coarse dark-coloured stuff, called wadmaal, then much 
used in the Zetland islands, as also in Iceland and Nor- 
way. But as she threw this cloak back from hei shoul- 
ders, a short jacket, of dark-blue velvet, stamped with 
figures, became visible, and the vest w'hich corresponded 
to it was of crimson colour, and embroidered with tar- 
nished silver. Her girdle was plaited with silver orna- 
ments, cut into the shape of planetary signs — her blue 
apron was embroidered with similar devices, and covered 
a petticoat of crimson cloth. Strong, thick, enduring 
shoes, of the half-dressed leather of the country, were 
tied with straps like those of the Roman buskins, over her 
scarlet stockings. She wore in her belt an ambiguous- 
looking weapon, which might pass for a sacrificing knife, 
or dagger, as the imagination of the spectator chose to 
assign to the wearer the character of a priestess or of a 
sorceress. In her hand she held a staff, squared on all 
sides, and engraved with Runic characters and figures, 
forming one of those portable and perpetual calendars 
which were used among the ancient natives of Scandina- 
via, and which, to a superstitious eye, might have passed 
for a divining rod. 

Such were the appearance, features, and attire, of Nor- 
na of the Fitful-head, upon whom many of the inhabit 
ants of the island looked with observance, many with fear, 
and almost all with a sort of veneration. Less pregnant 
circumstances of suspicion would, in^any other part of 
Scotland, have exposed her to the investigation of those 
cruel inquisitors, who were then often invested with the 


THE PIRATE. 


69 


delegated authority of the privy-council, for the purpose 
jf persecuting, torturing, and finally consigning to ihe 
flames, those who were accused of witchcraft or sorcery. 
But superstitions of this nature pass through two stages 
ere they become entirely obsolete. Those supposed to 
be possessed of supernatural powers, are venerated in the 
earlier stages of society. As religion and knowledge in- 
crease, they are first held in hatred and horror, and are 
finally regarded as impostors. Scotland was in the sec- 
ond state — the fear of witchcraft was great, and the ha- 
tred against those suspected of it intense. Zetland was 
as yet a little world by itself, where, among the lower and 
ruder classes, so much of the ancient northern supersti- 
tion remained, as cherished the original veneration for 
those affecting supernatural knowledge, and power over 
the elements, which made a constituent part of the ancient 
Scandinavian creed. At least if the natives of Th'de 
admitted that one class of magicians performed their feats 
by their alliance with Satan, they devoutly believed that 
others dealt with spirits of a different and less odious class 
— the ancient dwarfs, called, in Zetland, Trows or Drows, 
the modern fairies, and so forth. 

Among those who were supposed to be in league with 
disembodied spirits, this Norna, descended from, and 
representative of, a family which had long pretended to 
such gifts, was so eminent, that the name assigned to her, 
which signifies one of those fatal sisters who weave the 
web of human fate, had been conferred m honour of her 
supernatural powers. The name by which she had been 
actually christened was carefully concealed by herself and 
her parents ; for to its discovery they superstitiously an- 
nexed some fatal consequences. In those times, the 
doubt only occurred whether her supposed powers were 
acquired by lawful means. In our days, it would have 
been questioned whether she was an impostor, or whether 
lier imagination was so deeply impressed with the myste- 
ries of her supposed art, that she might be in some de- 
gree a Deliever in her own pretensions to supernatural 
knowledge. Certain it is, that she performed her part 


70 


THE PIllATE. 


jvith such undoubting confidence, and such striking dig- 
nity of look and action, and evinced, at the same time, 
such strength of language, and energy of purpose, that it 
would have been difficult for the greatest sceptic to hav^e 
doubted the reality of her enthusiasm, though he might 
smile at the pretensions to which it gave rise. 


CHAPTER VI. 

If, by your art, you have 

put the wild walerg in this roar, allay them.” 

Tempest. 

The Storm had somewhat relaxed its rigour just befo. e 
the entrance of Norna, otherwise she must have found it 
impossible to travel during the extremity of its fury. Rut 
she had hardly added herself so unexpectedly to the 
party whom chance had assembled at the dwelling of 
Triptolemus Yellowley, when the tempest suddenly re- 
sumed its former vehemence, and raged around the build- 
ing with a fury which made the inmates insensible to any 
thing except the risk that the old mansion was about to 
fall above their heads. 

Mistress Baby gave vent to her fears in loud exclama- 
tions of The Lord guide us — this is surely the last day 
— what kind of a country of guisards and gyre-carlines is 
this ! — and you, ye fool carle,” she added, turning on 
her brother, (for all her passions had a touch of acidity 
in them,) ‘‘ to quit the bonny Mearns land to come here, 
where there is naething but sturdy beggars and gaber- 
lunzies within ane’s house, and heaven’s anger on the 
outside on’t !” 

‘ I tell you, sister Baby,” answered the insulted agricul- 
rurist, that all shall be reformed and amended, — except- 
ing. ” he added betwixt his teeth, “ the scaulding humours 


THE PIRATE. 


71 


of an ill-natnred laud, that can add bitterness to the 
storm!” 

The old domestic and the pedlar meanwhile exhausted 
themselves in entreaties to Norna, of which, as they were 
couched in the Norse language, the master of the house 
mderstood nothing. 

She listened to them with a haughty and unmoved air, 
and replied at length aloud, and in English — “ I will not. 
What if this house be strewed in ruins before morning — 
where would be the world’s want in the crazed projector, 
and the niggardly pinch-commons, by which it is inhabit- 
ed ? They will needs come to reform Zetland customs, 
let them try how they like a Zetland storm. — ^You that 
would not perish, quit this house!” 

The pedlar seized on his little knapsack, and began 
hastily to brace it on his back ; the old maid-servant cast 
her cloak about her shoulders, and both seemed to be in 
the act of leaving the house as fast as they could. 

Triptolemus Yellowley, somewhat commoved by these 
appearances, asked Mordaunt, with a voice which falter- 
ed with apprehension, whether he thought there was any, 
that is, so very much danger 

“ I cannot tell,” answered the youth, ‘‘ I have scarce 
ever seen such a storm. Norna can tell us better than 
any one when it will abate ; for no one in these islands 
can judge of the weather like her.” 

“ And is that all thou thinkest Norna can do ?” said 
the sibyl ; “ thou shalt know her powers are not bound- 
ed within such a narrow space. Hear me, Mordaunt, 

youth of a foreign land, but of a friendly heart Dost 

thou quit this doomed mansion with those who now pre- 
pare to leave it ?” 

“ I do not — I will not, Norna,” replied Mordaunt ; “ 1 
know not your motive for desiring me to remove, and I 
will not leave, upon these dark threats, the house in which 
I have been kindly received in such a tempest as this. 
If the owners are unaccustomed to our practice of un- 
limited hospitality, 1 am the more obliged to them thar 


72 


THE PIRATE. 


they have relaxed their usages, and opened their doors in 
my behalf.” 

“ He is a brave lad,” said Mistress Baby, whose super 
stitious feelings had been daunted by the threats of the 
supposed sorceress, and who, amidst her eager, narrow, 
and repining disposition, had, like all who possess marked 
character, some sparks of higher feeling, which made her 
sympathize with generous sentiments, though she thought 
it too expensive to entertain them at her own cost — “ He 
is a brave lad,” she again repeated, “ and worthy of ten 
geese, if I had them to boil for him, or roast either. I’ll 
warrant him a gentleman’s son, and no churl’s blood.” 

“ Hear me, young Mordaunt,” said Norna, “ and de- 
part from this house. Fate has high views on you — you 
shall not remain in this hovel to be crushed amid its worth- 
less ruins, with the relics of its more worthless inhab- 
itants, whose life is as little to the world as the vegetation 
of the house-leek, which now grows on their thatch, and 
which shall soon be crushed amongst their mangled 
limbs.” 

“ I — I — I will go forth,” said Yellowley, who, despite 
of his bearing himself scholarly and wisely, was beginning 
to be terrified for the issue of the adventure ; for the 
house was old, and the walls rocked formidably to the 
blast. 

“ To what purpose ?” said his sister. “ I trust the 
Prince of the power of the air has not yet such like pow- 
er over those that are made in God’s image, that a good 
house should fall about our heads, because a randy quean 
(here she darted a fierce glance at the Pythoness) should 
boast us with her glamour, as if we were sae mony dogs 
to crouch at her bidding !” 

‘‘ I was only wanting,” said Triptolemus, ashamed of 
nis motion, “ to look at the bear-braird, which must be 
sair laid with this tempest ; but if this honest woman like 
to bide wi’ us, I think it were best to let us a’ sit doun 
car ny thegither, till it’s working weather again.” 

“ Honest woman !” eclioed Baby — “ Foul warlock 
thie^*— \roint a, e, ye limmer !” she added, addressing 


THE PIRATE. 


73 


Norna directly ; “ out of an honest house, or shame fa’ 
me, but I’ll take the bittle to you 

Norna cast on her a look of supreme contempt ; then, 
stepping to the window, seemed engaged in deep contem 
plation of the heavens, while the old maid-servant, Tron 
da, drawing close to her mistress, implored, for the sake 
of all tJiat was dear to man or woman, “ do not provoke 
Norna of Fitful-head ! You have no sic woman on tlie 
mainland of Scotland — she can ride on one of these 
clouds as easily as man ever rode on a sheltie.” 

“ I shall live to see her ride on the reek of a fat tar- 
barrel,” said Mistress Baby ; “ and that will be a fit 
pacing palfrey for her.” 

Again Norna regarded the enraged Mrs. Baby Y(fi low- 
ley with a look of that unutterable scorn which her haugh- 
ty features could so well express, and moving to the win- 
dow which looked to the north-west, from which qu irter 
the gale seemed at present to blow, she stood for some 
time with her arms crossed, looking out upon the leaden- 
coloured sky, obscured as it was by the thick drift, which, 
coming on in successive gusts of tempest, left ever and 
anon sad and dreary intervals of expectation betwixt the 
dying and the reviving blast. 

Norna regarded this war of the elements as one to 
whom their strife was familiar ; yet the stern serenity of 
her features had in it a cast of awe, and at the same time 
of authority, as the cabalist may be supposed to look up- 
on the spirit he has evoked, and which, though he knows 
how to subject him to his spell, bears still an aspect ap- 
palling to flesh and blood. The attendants stood by in 
different attitudes, expressive of their various feelings. 
Mordaunt, though not indifferent to the risk in which they 
stood, was more, curious than alarmed. He had heard 
of Nerna’s alleged power over the elements, and now 
expected an opportunity of judging for himself of its 
reality. Triptolemus Yellowley was confounded at what 
seemed to be far beyond the bounds of his philosophy j 
and, if the truth must be spoken, the worthy agriculturisv 
VOL. I. 


74 


THE PIRATE. 


was greatly more frightened than inquisitive. His sistei 
was not in the least curious on the subject ; but it was diffi- 
cult to say whether anger or fear- predominated in her sharp 
eyes and thin compressed lips. The pedlar and old Tron- 
da, confident that the house would never fall while the re- 
doubted Norna was beneath its roof, held themselves ready 
for a start the instant she should take her departure. 

Having looked on the sky for some time in a fixed at- 
titude, and with the most profound silence, Norna at once, 
yet with a slow and elevated gesture, extended her stafi 
of black oak towards that part of the heavens from which 
the blast came hardest, and in the midst of its fury chant- 
ed a Norwegian invocation, still preserved in the Island 
of Uist, under the name of the Song of the Reim-kennar, 
though some call it the Song of the Tempest. The fol- 
lowing is a free translation, it being impossible to render 
iterally many of the elliptical and metaphorical terms of 
expression peculiar to the ancient Northern poetry 

1 . 

Stern eagle of the far north-west, 

Thou that bearest in thy grasp the thunderbolt, 

Thou whose rushing pinions stir ocean to madness. 

Thou the destroyer of herds, thou the scatterer of navies. 

Thou the breaker down of towers, 

Amidst the scream of thy rage. 

Amidst the rushing of thy onward wings, ^ 

Though thy scream be loud as the cry of a perishing nation. 

Though the rushing of thy wings be like the roar often thousand 
Yet hear, in thine ire and thy haste. 

Hear thou the voice of the Reim-kennar ! 

2 . 

" Thou hast met the pine-trees of Drontheim, 

Their dark-green heads lie prostrate beside their uprooted stem» 

'I'hou hast met the rider of the ocean. 

The tall, the strong bark of the fearless rover, 

And she has struck to thee the topsail 
That she had not veil’d to a royal armada ; 

Thou hast met the tower that bears its crest among the clouds 
Tne battled massive tower of the Jarl of former days. 

And the cope-stone of the turret 
It lying upon its hos])itablc hearth ; 


THE PIRATE. 


75 


But tliou too shall stoop, proud compeller of clouds, 

When thou hearest the voice of the Reiin-kennar. 

3 . . 

** There are verses that can stop the stag in the forest, 

Ay, and when the dark-coloured dog is opening on his track ; 

'I'here are verses can make the wild hawk pause on the wing. 

Like the falcon that wears the hood and the jesses. 

And who knows the shrill whistle of the fowler 

Thou who canst mock at the scream of the drowning mariner. 

And the crash cf the ravaged forest. 

And the groan of the overwlielmed crowds, 

When the church hath fallen in the moment of prayer. 

There are sounds which thou also must list, 

When they are chanted by the voice of the Reim-kenn^r. 

4 . 

Enough of woo hctst thou wrought on the ocean. 

The widows wring their hands on the beach ; 

Enough of woe hast thou wrought on the land. 

The husbandman folds his arms in despair i 
Ceane thou the waving of thy pinions. 

Let the ocean repose in her dark strength ; 

Cease thou the flashing of thine eye. 

Let the thunderbolt sleep in the armoury of Odin ; 

He thou still at my bidding, viewless racer of the north-western heaven 
Sleep thou at the voice of Norna the Reim-kennar!” 


We have said that Mordaunt was naturally fond of ro- 
tnantic poetry and romantic situation ; it is not therefore 
surprising that he listened with interest to the wild address 
thus uttered to the wildest wind of the compass, in atone 
of such dauntless enthusiasm. But though he had heard 
so much of the Runic rhyme and of the northern spell, 
in the country where he had so long dwelt, he was not 
on this occasion so credulous as to believe that the tem- 
pest, which had raged so lately, and which was now begin- 
ning to decline, was subdued before the charmed verse of 
Norna. Certain it was, that the blast seemed passing 
away, and the apprehended danger was already over ; but 
it was not improbable that this issue had been for sometime 
foreseen by the Pythoness, through signs of the weather 
impej-ceptible to those who had not dwelt long in the 


76 


THE PIRATE. 


country, or had not bestowed on the meteorological phe- 
nomena the attention of a strict and close observer. 01 
Norna’s experience he had no doubt, and that went a fa^ 
way to explain what seemed supernatural in her demean- 
our. Yet still the noble countenance, half-shaded by 
dishevelled tresses, the air of majesty with which, in a 
tone of menace as well as of command, she addressed 
the viewless spirit of the tempest, gave him a strong in- 
clination to believe in the ascendency of the occult arts 
over the powers of nature ; for, if a woman ever moved 
on earth to whom such authority over the ordinary laws 
of the universe could belong, Norna of Fitful-head, judg- 
ing from bearing, figure, and face, was born to that high 
destiny. 

The rest of the company were less slow in receiving 
conviction. To Tronda and the jagger none was neces- 
sary : they had long believed in the full extent of Nor- 
na’s authority over the elements. But Triptolemus and 
his sister gazed at each other with wondering and alarm- 
ed looks, especially when the wind began perceptibly to 
decline, as was remarkably visible during the pauses 
which Norna made betwixt the strophes of her incanta- 
tion. A long silence followed the last verse, until Norna 
resumed her chant, but with a changed and more sooth- 
ing modulation of voice and tune. 

Eagle of the far north-western waters, 

Thou hast heard the voice of the Reim-kennar, 

Thou hast closed thy wide sails at her bidding, 

And folded them in peace by thy side. 

M}' blessing be on thy retiring path ! 

When thou stoopest from thy place on high, 

Soft be thy slumbers in the caverns of the unknown ocean, 

Rest till destiny shall again awaken thee ; 

Eagle of the north-west, thou hast heard the voice of the Reim-kennar!^' 

A pretty sang that would be to keep the corn from 
•shaking in har’st,” whispered the agriculturist to his sis- 
ter ; “ we must speak her fair. Baby — ^he will maybe 
part w’ith the secret for a hundred punds Scots.” . - 


the pirate. 


77 


“ An hundred fules’ heads!” replied liaby— * Did her 
five raerks of ready siller. I never knew a witch in my 
life but she was as poor as Job.” 

Norna turned towards them as if she had guessed their 
thoughts ; it may be that she did so. She passed them 
with a look of the most sovereign contempt, and walking 
to the table on which the preparations for Mrs. Barbara’s 
frugal meal were already disposed, she filled a small wood- 
en quaigh from an earthen pitcher which contained bland, 
a subacid liquor made out of the serous part of the milk. 
She broke a single morsel from a barley-cake, and having 
eaten and drunk, returned towards the churlish hosts. 
“ I give you no thanks,” she said, “ for my refreshment, 
for you bid me not welcome to it ; and thanks bestowed 
on a churl are like the dew of heaven on the clifis of 
Foulah, where it finds nought that can be refreshed by 
its influences. I give you no thanks,” she said again 
but drawing from her pocket a leathern purse that seem- 
ed large and heavy, she added, “ I pay you with what 
you wHl value more than the gratitude of the whole in- 
habitants of Hialtland. Say not that Norna of Fitful- 
head hath eaten of your bread and drunk of your cup, 
and left you sorrowing for the charge to which she hath 
put your house.” So saying, she laid on the table a 
small piece of antique gold coin, bearing the l ude and 
half-defaced effigies of some ancient northern king. 

Triptolemus and his sister exclaimed against tliis lib- 
erality with vehemence ; the first protesting that he kept 
no public, and the other exclaiming, “ Is the carline 
mad ? Heard ye ever of ony of the gentle house of Clink- 
scale that gave meat for siller ?”• 

“ Or for love either ?” muttered her brother ; baud 
to that, tittie.” 

“ What are ye witty-wattying about, ye gowk ?” said 
his gentle sister, who suspected the tenor of his murmur ; 
“ gie the ladie back her bonnie-die there, and be blithe to 
be sae rid on’t — it will be a sclate-stane the morn, if 
not something worse.” 

VOL. I 


78 


THE PIRATE. 


Tlie honest factor lifted the money to return it, ye 
could not help being struck when he saw the impression, 
and his hand trembled as he handed it to his sister. 

“ Yes,” said the Pythoness again; as if she read the 
thoughts of the astonished pair, ‘‘ you have seen that coin 
before — -Ceware how you use it ! It thrives not with the 
sordid or the mean-souled — it was won with honourable 
danger, and must be expended with honourable liberali- 
ty. The treasure .which lies under a cold hearth will 
one day, like the hidden talent, bear witness against its 
avaricious possessors.” ' 

"This last obscure intimation seemed to raise the alarm 
and the wonder of Mrs. Baby and her brother to the 
uttermost. The latter tried to stammer out something 
like an invitation to Norna to tarry with them all night, 
or at least to take share of the “ dinner,” so he at first 
called it ; but looking at the company, and remembering 
the limited contents of the pot, he corrected the phrase, 
and hoped she would take some part of the “ snack, 
which would be on the table ere a man could loose a 
pleugh.” 

“ 1 eat not here — I sleep not here,” replied Norna — 
nay, I relieve you not only of my own presence, but I 
will dismiss your unwelcome guests. — Mordaunt,” she 
added, addressing young Mertoun, “ the dark fit is past, 
and your father looks for you this evening.” 

‘‘ Do you return in that direction ?” said Mordaunt. 
I will but eat a morsel, and give you my aid, good 
mother, on the road. The brooks must be out, and the 
journey perilous.” 

“ Our roads lie different,” answered the sibyl,. “ and 
Norna needs not mortal arm to aid her on the way. I 
am summoned far to the east, by those who know well 
now to smooth my passage. For thee, Bryce Snails- 
foot,” she continued, speaking to the pedlar, “ speed 
thee on to Sumburgh — the roost will afford thee a gallant 
Harvest, and worthy the gathering in. Much goodly ware 
will ere now be seeking a new owner, and the carefu 


THE PIRATE 


79 


skipper will sleep still enough in the deep haaf, and care 
not that bale and chest are dashing against the shores.” 

“ Na, na, goodmother,” answered Snailsfoot, “ I de- 
sire no man’s life for my private advantage, and am just 
grateful for the blessing of Providence on my sma’ trade. 
But doubtless one man’s loss is another’s gain ; and as 
these storms destroy a’ thing on land, it is but fair they 
suld send us something by sea. Sae, taking the freedom, 
like yoursell, mother, to borrow a lump of barley-bread, 
and a draught of bland, I will bid good-day, and thank 
you, to this good gentleman and lady, and e’bn go on my 
way to Jarlshof, as you advise.” 

“ Ay,” replied the Pythoness, “ where the slaughter 
is, the eagles will be gathered ; and where the wreck is 
on the shore, the jagger is as busy to purchase spoil as 
the shark to gorge upon the dead.” 

This rebuke, if it was intended for such, seemed above 
the comprehension of the travelling-merchant, who, bent 
upon gain, assumed the knapsack and ellwand, and asked 
Mordaunt, with the familiarity permitted in a wild coun- 
try, whether he would not take company along with him? 

‘‘ I wait to eat some dinner with Mr. Yellowley and 
Mrs. Baby,” answered the youth, ‘‘ and will set forward 
in half an hour.” 

“ Then Pll just take my piece in my hand,” said the 
|:edlar. Accordingly he muttered a benediction, and 
without more Ceremony, helped himself to what, in Mrs. 
Baby’s covetous eyes, appeared to be two-thirds of the 
bread, took a long pull at the jug of bland, seized on a 
handful of the small fish called sillocks, which the domes- 
tic was just placing on the board, and left tlie room with- 
out farther ceremony. 

“ My certie,” said the despoiled Mrs. Baby, “ there 
is the chapman’s drouth^'^and* his hunger baith, as folks 
say ! If the laws against vagrants be executed this gate 
— It’s no that I wad shut the door against decent folk,” 
site said, looking to Mordaunt, “ more especially in such 
ludgment-weather. — But I see the goose is dished, poor 
thing.” 


80 


THE PIRATE. 


This she spoke in a tone of affection for the smokeJ 
goose, which, though it had long been an inanimate inhab- 
itant of her chimney, was far more interesting to ]\Irs. 
Baby in that state, than when it screamed amongst the 
clouds. Mordaunt laughed and took his seat, then turn- 
ed to look for Norna ; but she had glided from the apart- 
ment during the discussion with the pedlar.. 

“ I am glad she is gane, the dour carline,” said Mrs. 
Baby, ‘‘ though she has left that piece of gowd to be an 
everlasting shame to us.” 

“ Whisht,' mistress, for the love of heaven!” said Tron- 
da Dronsdajighter ; “ wha kens where she may be this 
moment — we are no sure but she may hear us, though 
we cannot see her.” 

Mrs. Baby cast a startled eye around, and instantly re- 
covering herself, for she was naturally courageous as well 
as violent, said, I bade her aroint before, and 1 bid her 
aroint again, whether she sees me or hears me,* or whether 
she’s ower the cairn and awa. — And you, ye silly sumph,” 
she said to poor Yellowley, “ what do ye stand glowering 
there for ? — You a Saunt Andrew Student ! — you studied 
lair and Latin humanities, as ye ca’ them, and daunted 
wi’ the clavers of an auld randie wife ! Say your best 
college grace, man, and witch, or nae witch, we’ll eat our 
dinner and defy her. And for the value of the gowden 
piece, it shall never be said I pouched her siller. I will 
gie it to some poor body — that is, I will test^^pon it at my 
death, and keep it for a purse-penny till that day comes, 
and that’s no using it in the way of spending siller. Say 
your best college grace, man, and let us eat and drink in 
the meantime.” 

“Ye had muckle better say an oraamus to Saint Ron- 
ald, and fling a saxpence ower your left shouther, mas- 
ter,” said Tronda.^® 

“ That ye may pick it up, ye jaud,” said the imp aca- 
ble Mistress Baby ; “ it will be lang or ye win the worth 
of it ony other gate. — Sit down, Triptolemus, and mindna 
the words of a daft wife.” 


THE PIRATE. 


81 


“ Daft or wise,” replied Yellowley, very much dis- 
concerted, “ she kens more than I would wish she kend. 
It was awfu’ to see sic a wind fa’ at the voice of flesh and 
blood like oursells — and then yon about the hearth-stane 
— I cannot but think” 

“ If ye cannot but think,” said Mrs. Baby, very sharp* 
ly, at least ye can baud your tongue ?” 

The agriculturist made no reply, but sat down to their 
scanty meal-, and did the honours of it with unusual hear- 
tiness to his new guest, the first of the intruders who had 
arrived, and the last who left them* The sillocks speed- 
ily 'disappeared, and the smoked goose, with its appen- 
dages, took wing so efiectually, that Tronda, to whom the 
‘ polishing of the bones had been destined, found the task 
accomplished, or nearly so, to her hand. After dinner, 
the host produced his bottle of brandy ; but Mordaunt, 
whose general habits were as abstinent almost as those of 
his father, laid a very light tax upon this unusual exer- 
tion of hospitality. 

During the meal, they learned so much of young Mor- 
daunt, and of his father, that even Baby resisted, his wish 
to reassume his wet garments, and pressed him (at the 
risk of an expensive supper being added to the charges 
of the day) to tarry with them till the next morning. But 
what Norna had said excited the youth’s wish to reach 
home, nor, however far the hospitality of Stourburgh wa* 
extended in his behalf, did the house present any par- 
ticular temptations to induce him to remain there longer. 
He therefore accepted the loan of the factor’s clothes, 
promising to return them, and send for his own ; and 
took a civil leave of his host and Mistress Baby, the latter 
of whom, however affected by the loss of her goose, could 
not but think the cost well bestowed (since it was to be 
expended at all) upon so handsome and cheerful a youth 


THE PIRATE. 




CHAPTER VIL 

She does no work by halves, yon raving ocean ; 

^ngulphing those she strangles, her wild womb 
Affords the mariners whom she hath dealt on, 

Their death at once, and sepulchre. 

Old Play. 

There were ten “ Hng Scots miles” betwixt Stour 
burgh and Jarlshof ; and though the pedestrian did no' 
number all the impediments which crossed Tam o’ Shan- 
tei ’s path, — for, in a country where there are neither hedg- 
es nor stone enclosures, there can be neither “ slaps nor 
stiles,” — ^yet the number and nature of the “ mosses and 
waters” which he had to cross in his peregrination, was 
fully sufficient to balance the account, and to render his 
journey as toilsome and dangerous as Tam o’ Shanter’s 
celebrated retreat from Ayr. Neither witch nor warlock 
crossed Mordaunt’s path, however. The length of the 
day was already considerable, and he arrived safe at 
Jarlshof by eleven o’clock at night. All was still and 
dark round the mansion, and it was not till he had whis- 
tled twice or thrice beneath Swertha’s window, that she 
replied to the signal. 

At the first sound, Swertha fell into an agreeable dream 
of a young whale-fisher, who some forty years before used 
to make such a signal beneath the window of her hut ; at 
the second, she waked to remember that Johnnie Fea had 
slept sound among the frozen waves of Greenland for 
this many a year, and that she was Mr. Mertoun’s gov- 
ernante at Jarlshof; at the third, she arose and opened 
the window. 

“ VVhae is that,” she demanoed, “ at sic an hour of 
the night?” 

“ It is T,” said the youth 


THE PIRATE. 


83 


And what for comena ye in ? The door’s on the 
latch, and there is a gathering peat on the kitchen fire, and 
a spunk beside it — ye can light your ain candle.” 

“ All well,” replied Mordaunt ; ‘‘ but I want to know 
how my father is 

‘‘ Just in his ordinary, gude gentleman — asking for 
you, Maister Mordaunt ; ye are ojver far and ower late 
in your walks, young gentleman.” 

“ Then the dark hour has passed, Swertha ?” 

“ In troth has it, Maister Mordaunt,” answered the gov- 
ernante ; and your father is very rgitsOnably good- 
natured for him, poor gentleman. I spake to him twice 
yesterday without his speakin^^fifSt ; and' the first time 
he answered me as civil as you could do, and the neist 
time he bade me no plague him ; and then, thought I, 
three times were ay canny, so I spake to him again for 
luck’s-sake, and he called me a chattering old devil, but 
it was quite and clean in a civil sort of way.” 

“ Enough, enough, Swertha,” answered Mordaunt ; 
“ and now get up and find me something to eat, for I have 
dined but poorly.” 

“ Then you have been at the new folk’s at Stourburgh ; 
for there is no another house in a’ the Isles but they wad 
hae gi’en ye the best share of the best they had. Saw 
ye aught of Norna of the Fitful-head ? She went to Stour- 
burgh this morning, and returned to the town at night.” 

“ Returned ! — then she is here ? How could she travel 
three leagues and better in so short a time ?” 

“ Wha kens how she travels ?” replied Swertha ; “ but 
I heard her tell the Ranzelman wi’ my ain lugs, that she 
intended that day to have gone on to Burgh-Westra, to 
speak with Minna Troil, but she had seen that at Stour- 
ourgh, (indeed she said at Harfra, for she never calls it 
by the other name of Stourburg,) that sent her back to 
our town. But gang your ways round, and ye shall have 
plenty of supper — ours is nae toom pantry, and still lesf 
a locked ane, though my master be a stranger, and no 
Just that tight in the upper rigging as the ranzelman 
says. ” 


64 


THE PIRATE. 


IMordaimt walked round to the kitchen accordingly 
where Swertha’s care speedily accommodated him with 
a plentiful, though coarse meal, which indemnified him 
for the scanty hospitality he had experienced at Stour- 
burgh. 

In the morning, some feelings of fatigue made young 
Mertoun later than usual in leaving his bed ; so that, con- 
trary to what was the ordinary case, he found his father 
in the apartment where they eat, and which served them 
indeed for every common purpose, save that of a bed- 
chamber or of a kitchen. The son greeted the father in 
myte reverence, and waited until he should address him. 

“ You were absent yesterday, Mordaunt ?” said his 
father. Mordaunt’s absence had lasted a week and more , 
but he had often observed that his father never seemed 
to notice how time passed during the period when he was 
affected with his sullen vapours. He assented to what 
the elder Mr. Mertoun had said. 

“ And you were at Burgh- Westra, as I think ?” con- 
tinued his father. 

‘‘ Yes, sir,” replied Mordaunt. 

The elder Mertoun was then silent for some time, and 
paced the floor in deep silence, with an air of sombre re- 
flection, which seemed as if he were about to relapse into 
his moody fit. Suddenly turning to his son, however, 
lie observed, in the tone of a query, “ Magnus Troil has 
two daughters — they must be now young women ; they 
are thought handsome, of course ?” 

“ Very generally, sir,” answered Mordaunt, rather 
surprised to hear his father making any inquiries about 
the individuals of a sex which he usually thought so light 
of, a surprise which was much increased by the next 
ipiestion, put as abruptly as the forfner. 

“ Which think you the handsomest ?” 

“ I, sir ?” replied his son with some wonder, but with- 
out embarrassment — “ I really am no judge — I never 
considered which was absolutely the handsomest. They 
are both very pretty young women.” 


THE PIRATE. 


85 


“ You evade niy question, Mordaunt ; perhaps I have 
some very particular reason for my wish to be acquainted 
with your taste in this matter. I am not used to waste 
words for no purpose. I ask you again, which of Magnus 
Troil’s daughters'you think most handsome?” 

‘‘ Really, sir,” replied Mordaunt — “ but you only jest 
in asking me such a question.” 

“ Young man,” replied Mertoun, with eyes which be- 
gan to roll and sparkle with impatience, “ I never jest. 
1 desire an answer to my question.” 

“ Then, upon my word, sir,” said Mordaunt, “ it is 
not in my power to form a judgment betwixt the young 
ladies — they are both very pretty, but by no means like 
each other. Minna is dark-haired, and more grave than 
her sister — more serious, but by no means either dull or 
sullen.” 

“ Um,” replied his father ; you have been gravely 
brought up, and this Minna, I suppose, pleases you 
most ?” 

“ No, sir, really I can give her no preference over 
her sister Brenda, who is as gay as a lamb in a spring 
morning — less tall than her sister, but so well formed, and 

so excellent a dancer” 

That she is best qualified to amuse the young man 
who has a dull home and a moody father?” said Mr. 
Mertoun. 

Nothing in his father’s conduct had ever surprisec 
Mordaunt so much as the obstinacy with which he seem- 
ed to pursue a theme so foreign to his general train oi 
thought, and habits of conversation ; but he contented 
himself with answering once more, “ that both the young 
ladies wer^ highly admirable, but he had never bought 
of them with the wish to do either injustice by tanking 
her lower than her sister — that others would probably 
decide between them as they happened to be partial to a 
grave or a gay disposition, or to a dark or fair complex- 
ion ; but that he could see no excellent quality in the 
VOL. I. 


86 


THE riRATE. 


one that was not balanced by something equally captivat 
ing in the other.” 

It is possible that even tlje coolness with which Mor- 
daunt made this explanation might not have satisfied his 
father concerning the subject of investigation ; but Swer- 
tha at this moment entered with breakfast, and the youth, 
notwithstanding his kte supper, engaged in that meal with 
an air which satisfied Mertoun that he held it matter ol 
more grave importance than the conversation which they 
had just had, and that he had nothing more to say upon 
the subject explanatory of the answers he had already 
given. He shaded his brow with his hand, and looked 
long fixedly upon the young man as he was busied with 
his morning meal. There was neither abstraction nor a 
sense of being observed in any of his motions ; all was 
frank, natural, and open. 

He is fancy-free,” muttered Mertoun to himself — 
“ so young, so lively, and so imaginative, so handsome 
and so attractive in face and person, strange, that at his 
age, and in his circumstances, he should have avoided 
the meshes which catch all the world beside!” 

When the breakfast was over, the elder Mertoun, in 
stead of proposing, as usual, that his son, who awaited his 
commands, should betake himself to one branch or other 
of his studies, assumed his hat and staff, and desired that 
Mordaunt should accompany him to the top of the cliff, 
called Sumburgh-head, and from thence look out upon 
the state of the ocean, agitated as it must still be by the 
tempest of the preceding day. Mordaunt was at the age 
when young men willingly exchange sedentary pursuits 
for active exercise, and started up with alacrity to comply 
with his father’s desire ; and in the course of a few 
minutes they were mounting together the hill, which, as- 
cending from the land side in a long, steep, and grassy 
slope, sinks at once from the summit to the sea in an abrupf 
and tremendous precipice. 

The day was delightful ; there was just so much mo- 
tion in the air as to disturb the little fleecy clouds which 
were scattered on the horizon, and by floating them oo 


THE PIRATE. 


87 


casionally over the sun, to chequer the landscape with 
that variety of light and shade which often gives to a bare 
and unenclosed scene, for the time at least, a species of 
charm approaching to the varieties of a cultivated and 
planted country. A thousand flitting hues of light and 
shade played over the expanse of wild moor, rocks, and 
inlfets, which, as they climbed higher and higher, spread 
in wide and wider circuit around them. 

The elder Mertoun often paused and looked round 
upon the scene, and for some time his son supposed that 
he halted to enjoy its beauties ; but as they ascended still 
aigher up the hill, he remarked his shortened breath and 
his uncertain and toilsome step, and became assured, with 
some feelings of alarm, that his father’s strength was, for 
the moment, exhausted, and that he found the ascent more 
toilsome and fatiguing than usual. To draw close to his 
side, and offer him in silence the assistance of his arm, 
was an act of youthful deference to advanced age, as well 
as of filial reverence ; and Mertoun seemed at first so to 
receive it, for he took In silence the advantage of the aid 
thus afforded him. 

It was but for two or three minutes, however, that the 
father availed himself of his son’s support. They had 
not ascended fifty yards farther, ere he pushed Mordaunt 
suddenly, if not rudely, from him ; and, as if stung into 
exertion by some sudden recollection, began to mount the 
acclivity with such long and quick steps, that Mordaunt, 
in his turn, was obliged to exert himself to keep pace 
with him. He knew his father’s peculiarity of disposi- 
tion ; he was aware, from many slight circumstances, that 
he loved him not even while he took much pains with his 
education, and while he seemed to be the sole object of his 
care upon earth. But the conviction had never been more 
strongly or more powerfully forced upon him than by the 
hasty churlishness with which Mertoun rejected from a 
son that assistance, which most elderly men are willing to 
leceive from youths with whom they are but slightly con- 
nected, as a tribute which it is alike graceful to yield and 
pleasing to receive. Mertoun, however, did not seem 


88 


THE PIRATE. 


to perceive the effect which his unkindnet^s had produced 
upon his son’s feelings. He paused upon a sort of level 
terrace which they had now attained, and addressed his: 
son with an indifferent tone, which seemed in some de- 
gree affected. 

“ Since you have so few inducements, Mordaunt, to 
remain in these wild islands, I suppose you sometimes wish 
to look a little more abroad into the world ?” 

“ By my word, sir,” replied Mordaunt, “ I cannot say 
I ever have a thought on such a subject.” 

“ And why not, young man ?” demanded his father 5 
“ it were but natural, I think, at your age. At your age, 
the fair and varied breadth of Britain could not gratify 
me, much less the compass of a sea-girdled peat-moss.” 

“ I have never thought of leaving Zetland, sir,” repli- 
ed the son. “ I am happy here, and have friends. You 
yourself, sir, would miss me, unless indeed” 

“ Why, thou wouldst not persuade me,” said his father 
somewhat hastily, “ that you stay here, or desire to stay 
here, for the love of me ?” 

“ Why should I not, sir ?” answered Mordaunt, mildly ; 

it is my duty, and I hope I have hitherto performed it.” 

“ O ay,” repeated Mertoun, in the same tone — “ your 
duty — your duty. So it is the duty of the dog to follow 
the groom that feeds him.” 

“ And does he not do so, sir ?” said Mordaunt. 

Ay,” said his father, turning his head aside ; “ bu 
he fawns only on those who caress him.” 

“ I hope, sir,” replied Mordaunt, ‘‘ I have not been 
found deficient ?” 

“ Say no more on’t — say no more on’t,” said Mertoun 
abruptly, “ we have both done enough by each other — 
we must soon part — Let that be our comfort — if our sep- 
aration should require comfort.” 

“ I shall be ready to obey your wishes,” said Mordaunt. 
not altogether displeased at what promised him an oppor- 
tunity of looking farther abroad into the world “ I pre- 
sume it will be your pleasure that I commence my travels 
with a season at the whale-fishing.” 


THE PIRATE. 


89 


Whale-fishing !” replied Mertoun ; ‘‘ that were a 
mode indeed of seeing the world ! but thou speakest but 
as thou hast learned. Enough of this for the present. 
Tell me where you had shelter from the storm yesterday ?” 

“ At Stourburgh, the house of the new factor from 
Scotland.” 

■ “A pedantic, fantastic, visionary schemer,” said Mer- 
toun — and whom saw you there ?” 

“ His sister, sir,” replied Mordaunt, “ and old Norna 
of the Fitful-head.” 

“ What ! the mistress of the potent spell,” answered 
Mertoun, with a sneer — “ she who can change the wind 
by pulling her curch on one side, as King Erick used to 
do by turning his cap ?* The dame journeys far from 
home- -how fares she ? Does she get rich by selling fa- 
vourable winds to those who are port-bound 

“ I really do not know, sir,” said Mordaunt, whom cer- 
tain recollections prevented from freely entering into his 
father’s humour. 

“ You think the matter too serious to be jested with, 
or perhaps esteem her merchandize too light to be cared 
after,” continued Mertoun, in the same sarcastic tone, 
which was the nearest approach he ever made to cheer- 
fulness ; “ but consider it more deeply. Every thing in 
the universe is bought and sold, and why not wind, if the 
merchant can find purchasers ? The earth is rented, from 
its surface down to its most central mines ; — the fire, and 
the means of feeding it, are currently bought and sold ; 
— the wretches that sweep the boisterous ocean with their 
nets, pay ransom for the privilege of being drowned in it. 
What title has the air to be’ exempted from the universal 
course of traffic ? All above the earth, under the earth, 
and around the earth, has its price, its sellers, and its pur- 
chasers. In many countries the priests will sell you a 
portion of heaven — in all countries men are willing to 
buy, in exchange for health, wealth, and peace of con- 
science, a full allowance of hell. Why should rot Norna 
pursue her traffic ?” 

VOL. I. 


90 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Nay, I know no reason against it,” replied Mordaurit , 
“ only I wish she would part with the commodity in small 
er quantities. Yesterday she was a wholesale dealer — 
whoever treated with her had too good a pennyworth.” 

“ It is even so,” said his father, pausing on the verge 
of the wild promontory which they had attained, where 
the huge precipice sinks abruptly down on the wide and 
tempestuous ocean, “ and the effects are still visible.” 

The face of that Idfty cape is composed of the soft and 
crumbling stone called sand-flag, which gradually be- 
comes decomposed, and yields to the action of the atmos- 
phere, and is split into large masses, that hang loose upon 
the verge of the precipice, and (Jetached from it by the 
violence of the tempests, often descend with great fury 
into the vexed abyss which lashes the foot of the rock. 
Numbers of these huge fragments lie strewed beneath the 
rocks from which they have fallen, and amongst these the 
tide foams and rages with a fury peculiar to those latitudes. 

At the period when Mertoun and his son looked 
from the verge of the precipice, the wide sea stili 
heaved and swelled with the agitation of yesterday’s 
storm, which had been far too violent in its effects 
on the ocean to subside speedily. The tide therefore 
poured- on the headland with a fury deafening to the 
ear, and dizzying to the eye, threatening instant destruc 
tion to whatever might be at the time involved in its cur- 
rent. The sight of nature, in her magnificence, or in her 
beauty, or in her terrors, has at all times an overpowering 
interest, which even habit cannot greatly weaken ; and 
both father and son sat themselves down on the cliff to 
look out upon that unbounded war of waters, which rolled 
in their wrath to the foot of the precipice. 

At once Mordaunt, whose eyes were sharper, and prob- 
ably his attention more alert than that of his father, start- 
ed up and exclaimed, ‘‘ God in Heaven ! there is a vesse 
in the Roost!” 

Mertoun looked to the north-westward, and an object 
was visible amid the rolling tide. “ She shows no sail,” 
he observed ; and immediately added, after looking at 


THE PIRATE. 


91 


the object through his spy-glass, She is dismasted, and 
lies a sheer hulk upon the water.” 

“ And is drifting on tlie Sumburgh-head,” exclaimed 
Mordaunt, struck with horror, “ without the slightest 
means of weathering the cape !” 

“ She makes no effort,” answered his father ; “ she is 
probably deserted by her crew.” 

‘‘ And in such a day as yesterday,” replied Mordaunt, 
“ when no open boat could live were she manned with the 
best men ever handled an oar — all must have perished.” 

“ It is most probable,” said his father, with stern com- 
posure ; “ and one day, sooner or later, all must have 
perished. What signifies whether the fowler, whom noth- 
ing escapes, caught them up at one swoop from yon- 
der shattered deck, or whether he clutched them individ- 
ually, as chance gave them to his grasp ? What signifies 
it ? — The deck, the battle-field, are scarce more fatal to 
us than our table and our bed ; and we are saved from 
the one, merely to drag out a heartless and wearisome ex- 
istence, till we perish at the other. Would the hour were 
come — that hour which reason would teach us to wish 
for, were it not that nature has implanted the fear of it so 
strongly within us ! You wonder at such a reflection, 
because life is yet new to you. Ere you have attained my 
age, it will be the familiar companion of your thoughts.” 

“ Surely, sir,” replied Mordaunt, “ such distaste to life 
is not the necessary consequence of advanced age ?” 

“ To all who have sense to estimate that which it is 
really worth,” said Mertoun. “ Those who, like Magnus 
Troil, possess so much of the animal impulses about them, 
as to derive pleasure from sensual gratification, may per- 
haps, like the animals, feel pleasure in mere existence.” 

Mordaunt liked neither the doctrine nor the example. 
He thought a man who discharged his duties towards 
others as well as the good old Udaller, had a better right 
to have the sun shine fair on his setting, than that which 
he might derive from mere insensibility. But he let the 
subject drop ; for to dispute with his father, had always 


92 


THE PIRATE. 


ihe effect of irritating him, and again he adverted to the 
condition of the wreck. 

The hulk, for it was little better, was now in the ver^j 
midst of the current, and drifting at a great rate towards 
the foot of the precipice, upon whose verge they were 
placed. Yet it was a long while ere they had a distinct 
view of the object which they had at first seen as a black 
speck amongst the waters, and then at a nearer distance,, 
like a whale, which now scarce shows its back-fin, above 
the waters, now throw^s to view its large black side. Now, 
however, they could more distinctly observe the appear- 
ance of the ship, for the huge swelling waves which bore 
her forward to the shore, heaved her alternately high upon 
the surface, and then plunged her into the trough or furrow 
of the sea. She seemed a vessel of two or three hundred 
tons, fitted up for defence, for they could see her port- 
holes. She had been dismasted probably m the gale of 
the preceding day, and lay water-logged on the weaves, a 
prey to their violence. It appeared certain, that the 
crew, finding themselves unable either to direct the ves- 
sel’s course, or to relieve her by pumping, had taken to 
tlieir boats, and left her to her fate. All apprehensions 
were tlierefore unnecessary, so far as the immediate loss 
of human lives was concerned ; and yet it was not with- 
out a feeling of breathless awe that Mordaunt and his fa- 
ther beheld the vessel — that rare masterpiece by which 
human genius aspires to surmount the weaves, and contend 
with the winds, upon the point of falling a prey to them. 

Onward she came, the large black hulk seeming larger 
at every fathom’s length. She came nearer, until she 
bestrode the summit of one tremendous billow, winch 
rolled on with her unbroken, till the wave and its bui- 
den were precipitated against the rock, and then the tri- 
umph of the elements over the work of human hands was 
at once completed. One wave, we have said, made the 
wrecked vessel completely manifest in her whole bulk, as 
it raised her, and bore her onward against the face of the 
precipice. But when that wave receded from the foot ol 
tlie rock, the ship had ceased to exist *, and the retiring 


THE PIRATE. 


93 


billow only bore back a quantity of beams, planks, casks^ 
and similar objects, which swept out to the offing, to be 
brought in again by the next wave, and again precipitated 
upon the face of the rock. 

It was at this moment that Mordaunt conceived he 
saw a man floating on a plank or water-cask, which, drift- 
ing away from the main current, seemed about to go a- 
shore upon a small spot of sand, where the water was 
shallow, and the waves broke more smoothly. To see 
the danger, and to exclaim, “ He lives, and may yet be 
saved !” was the first impulse of the fearless Mordaunt. 
The next was, after one rapid glance at the front of the 
cliff, to precipitate himself — such seemed the rapidity of 
his movement — from the verge, and to commence, by 
means of slight fissures, projections, and crevices in the 
rock, a descent, which, to a spectator, appeared little else 
than an act of absolute insanity. 

“ Stop, 1 command you, rash boy !” said his father ; 
‘‘ the attempt is death. Stop, and take the safer path to 
the left.” But Mordaunt was already completely engaged 
in his perilous enterprize. 

“ Why should I prevent him ?” said his father, check- 
ing his anxiety with the stern and unfeeling philosophy 
whose principles he had adopted. “ Should he die riTJVv, 
full of generous and high feeling, eager in the cause of 
humanity, happy in the exertion of his own conscious ac- 
tivity and youthful strength — should he die now, will he 
not escape misanthropy, and remorse, and age, and the 
consciousness of decaying powers, both of body and 
mind ? — I will not look upon k, however — I will not — 1 
cannot behold his young light so suddenly quenched.” 

He turned from the precipice accordingly, and hasten- 
ing to the left for more than a quarter of a mile, he pro- 
ceeded towards a riva, or cleft in the rock, containing a 
path, called Erick’s steps, neither safe, indeed, nor easy, 
b”t the only one by which the inhabitants of Jarlshof were 
wont, for any purpose, to seek access to the foot of the 
precipice. 


94 


TfiE PIRATE. 


But long ere Mertoun had reached even the uppe end 
of the pass, his adventurous and active son had accom- 
plished his more desperate enterprize. He had been in 
vain turned aside from the direct line of descent, by the 
intervention of difficulties which he had not seen from 
above — ^his route became only more circuitous, but could 
not be interrupted. More than once, large fragments to 
which he was about to entrust his weight, gave way before 
him, and thundered down into the tormented ocean ; and 
in one or two instances, such detached pieces of rock 
rushed after him, as if to bear him headlong in their course. 
A courageous heart, a steady eye, a tenacious hand, and 
a firm foot, carried him through his desperate attempt 5 
and in the space of seven minutes, he stood at the bottom 
of the cliff, from the verge of which he had achieved his 
perilous descent. 

The place which he now occupied was the small pro- 
jecting spot of stones, sand, and gravel, that extended a 
little way into the sea, which on the right hand lashed the 
very bottom of the precipice, and on the left, was scarce 
divided from it by a small wave-worn portion of beach, 
that extended as far as the foot of the rent in the rocks 
called Erick’s steps, by which Mordaunt’s father proposed 
to descend. 

When the vessel split and went to pieces, all was swal- 
lowed up in the ocean, which had, after the first shock 
been seen to float upon the waves, excepting only a few 
pieces of wreck, casks, chests, and the like, which a strong 
eddy, formed by the reflux of the waves, had landed, or 
at least grounded, upon the shallow where Mordaunt now 
stood. Amongst these, his eager eye discovered the ob- 
iect that had at first engaged his attention, and which 
now, seen at nigher distance, proved to be in truth a man, 
and in a most precarious state. His arms were still wrapt 
with a close and convulsive grasp round the plank- to which 
he iad clung in the moment of the shock, but sense and 
the power of motion were fled ; and, from the situation 
in which the plank lay, pirtly grounded upon the beach, 
partly floating in the sea, there was every chance that it 


THE PIRATE. 


95 


might be again washed off shore, in which case death was 
inevitable. Just as he had made himself aware of these 
circumstances, Mordaunt beheld a huge wave advancing, 
and hastened to interpose his aid ere it burst, aware that 
the reflux might probably sweep away the sufferer. 

He rushed into the surf and fastened on the body 
with the same tenacity, though under a different impulse 
with that wherewith the hound seizes his prey. The 
strength of the retiring wave proved even greater than he 
had expected, and it was not without a struggle for his 
own life, as well as for that of the stranger, that Mor- 
daunt resisted being swept off with the receding billow, 
when, though an adroit swimmer, the strength of the 
tide must either have dashed him against the rocks, or 
hurried him out to sea. He stood his ground, however, 
and ere another such billow had returned, he drew up, up- 
on the small slip of dry sand, both the body of the stran- 
ger and the plank to which he continued firmly attach- 
ed. But how to save and to recall the means of ebbing 
life and strength, and how to remove into a place of great- 
er safety the sufferer, who was incapable of giving any 
assistance towards his own preservation, were questions 
which Mordaunt asked himself eagerly, but in vain. 

He looked to the summit of the cliff on which he had 
left his father, and shouted to him for his assistance ; but 
his eye could not distinguish his form, and his voice was 
only answered by the scream of the sea-birds. He gazed 
' again on the sufferer. A dress richly laced, according to 
the fashion of the times, fine linen, and rings upon his 
fingers, evinced he was a man of superior rank ; and his 
features showed youth and comeliness, notwithstanding 
they were pallid and disfigured. He still breathed, but 
so feebly, that his respiration was almost imperceptible, 
and life seemed to keep such slight hold of his frame 
that there was every reason to fear it would become al- 
together extinguished, unless it were speedily reinforced. 
To 'Dosen the handkerchief from his neck, to raise him 
with his face towards the breeze, to support him with his 


96 


THE PIRATE. 


arms, was all that Mordaunt could do for his assistance 
whilst he anxiously looked for some one who might 
lend his aid in dragging the unfortunate to a more safe 
situation. 

At this moment he beheld a man advancing slowly and 
cautiously along the beach. He was in hopes, at first, it 
was his father, but instantly recollected that he had not 
had time to come round by the circuitous descent, to 
which he must necessarily have recourse, and besides he 
saw that the man who approached him was shorter in 
stature. 

As he came nearer, Mordaunt was at no loss to recog- 
nize the pedlar whom the day before he had met with at 
Harfra, and who was known to him before upon many 
occasions. He shouted as loud as he could, “ Bryce, 
hollo ! Bryce, come hither !” But the merchant, intent 
upon picking up some of the spoils of the wreck, and 
upon dragging them out of reach of the tide, paid for 
some time little attention to his shouts. 

When he did at length approach Mordaunt, it was not 
to lend him his aid, but to remonstrate with him on his 
rashness in undertaking the charitable office. “ Are you 
mad ?” said he ; “ you that have lived sae lang in Zet- 
land, to risk the saving of a drowning man ? wot ye not, 
if you bring him to life again, he will be sure to do you 
some capital injury — Come, Master Mordaunt, bear a 
hand to what’s mair to the purpose. Help me to get ane 
or twa of these kists ashore before any body else comes, 
and we shall share, like good Christians, what God sends 
us, and be thankful.” 

Mordaunt was indeed no stranger to this inhuman su- 
perstition, current at a former period among the lower 
orders of the Zetlanders, and the more generally adopted, 
perhaps, that it served as an apology for refusing assist- 
ance to the unfortunate victims of shipwreck, while they 
made plunder of their goods. At any rate, the opinion, 
that to save a drowning man was to run the risk of future 
injury from him, formed a strange contradiction in the 
character of these islanders ; who, hospitable, generous, 


THE PIRATE. 


97 


and disinterested, on all other occasions, were sometimes, 
nevertheless, induced by this superstition, to refuse their 
aid in those mortal emergencies, which were so conirnon 
upon their rocky and stormy coasts. AVe are happy to 
add, that the exhortation and example of tlie proprietors 
have eradicated even the traces of this inhuman belief, 
of which there might be some observed within the mem- 
ory of those now alive. It is strange that the minds of 
men should have ever been hardened towards those in- 
volved in a distress to which they themselves were so con- 
stantly exposed ; but perhaps the frequent sight and con- 
sciousness of such danger tends to blunt the feelings to 
its consequences, whether affecting ourselves or others. 

Bryce was remarkably tenacious of this ancient belief ; 
the more so, perhaps, that the mounting of his pack de- 
pended less upon the warehouses of Lerwick or Kirkwall, 
than on the consequences of. such a north-western gale 
as that of the day preceding ; for which (being a man 
who, in his own way, professed great devotion) he seldom 
failed to express his grateful thanks to heaven. It was 
indeed said of him, that if he had spent the same time 
in assisting the wrecked seamen, which he had employed 
in rifling their bales and boxes, he would have saved many 
lives, and lost much linen. He paid no sort of attention 
to the repeated entreaties of Mordaunt, although he was 
now upon the same slip of sand with him. It was well 
known to Bryce as a place on which the eddy was likely 
to land such spoils as the ocean disgorged ; and to improve 
the favourable moment, he occupied himself exclusively in 
securing and appropriating whatever seemed most porta- 
ble and of greatest value. At length Mordaunt saw the 
honest pedlar fix his views upon a strong sea-chest, framed 
of some Indian wood, well secured by brass plates, and 
seeming to be of a foreign construction. The stout lock 
resisted all Bryce’s efforts to open it, until, with great 
composure, he plucked from his pocket a very neat ham- 
mer and chisel, and began forcing the hinges. 

Licensed beyond patience at his assurance, Moroaunt 
caught up a wooden stretcher which lay near him, ana 

VOL. I. 


98 


THE PIRATE. 


laying his charge softly on the sand, apprc/ached Bryce 
with a menacing gesture, and exclaimed, “ You cold- 
blooded inhuman rascal ! either get up instantly and lend 
me your assistance to recover this man, and bear him out 
of danger from the surf, or I will not only beat you to a 
mummy on the spot, but inform Magnus Troil of your 
thievery, that he may have you flogged till your bones are 
bare, and then banish you from the Mainland 

The lid of the chest had just sprung open as this 
rough address saluted Bryce’s ears, and the inside pre- 
sented a tempting view of wearing apparel for sea and 
and ; shirts, plain and with lace ruffles, a silver compass, 
a silver-hiked sword, and other valuable articles, which 
the pedlar well knew to be such as stir in the trade. He 
was half-disposed to start up, draw the sword, which was 
a cut-and-thrust, and “ darraign battaile,” as Spencer 
says, rather than quit his prize, or brook interruption. 
Being, though short, a stout square-made personage, and 
not much past the prime of life, having besides the better 
weapon, he might have given Mordaunt more trouble than 
his benevolent knight-errantry deserved. 

Already, as with vehemence he repeated his injunctions 
that Bryce should forbear his plunder, and come to the 
assistance of the dying man, the pedlar retorted with a 
voice of defiance, Dinna swear, sir ; dinna swear, sir 
— I will endure no swearing in my presence ; and if you 
lay a finger on me, that am taking the lawful spoil of the 
Egyptians, I will give ye a lesson ye shall remember from 
this day to Yule!” 

Mordaunt would speedily have put the pedlar’s courage 
to the test, but a voice behind him suddenly said, “ For- 
bear ’’’ It was the voice of Norna of the Fitful-head, who, 
during the heat v;f their altercation, had approached them 
unobserved. “ Forbear !” she repeated ; “ and, Bryce, 
do thou render Mordaunt the assistance he requires. It 
shall avail thee more, and it is I who say the word, than 

that you could earn to-day besides.” 

“ It is se’enteen hundred linen,” said the pedlar, giving 
a tweak to one of the shirts, in that knowing manner with 


THE riRATE. 


99 


which matrons and judges ascertain the texture of the 
loom ; — “ it’s se’enteen hundred linen, and as strong as 
an it were dowlas. Nevertheless, mother, your bidding 
is to be done ; and I would have done Mr. Mordaunt’s 
bidding too,” he added, relaxing from his note of defi- 
ance, into the deferential whining tone with which he ca 
joled his customers, “ if he h.idna made use of profane 
oaths, which made my very flesh grue, and caused me 
ill some sort, to forget myself.” He then took a flask 
from his pocket, and approached the shipwrecked man 
“ It’s the best of brandy,” he said ; “ and if that doesna 
cure him, I ken nought that will.” So saying he took a 
preliminary gulp himself, as if to show the quality of the 
liquor, and was about to put it to the man’s mouth, when, 
suddenly withholding his hand, he looked at Norna — 

You insure me against all risk of evil from him, if I am 
to render him my help ? — Ye ken yoursell what folks say, 
mother.” 

For all other answer, Norna took the bottle from the 
pedlar’s hand, and began to chafe the temples and throat 
of the shipwrecked man ; directing Mordaunt how to hold 
his head, so as to afford him the means of disgorging the 
sea-water which he had swallowed during his immersion. 

The pedlar looked on inactive for a moment, and then 
said, To be sure, there is not the same risk in helping 
him, now he is out of the water, and lying high and dry 
on the beach ; and, to be sure, the principal danger is to 
those that first touch him ; and, to be sure, it is a world’s 
pity to see how these rings are pinching the puir crea- 
ture’s swauld fingers — they make his hand as blue as a 
partan’s back before boiling.” So saying, he se /zed one 
of the man’s cold hands, which had just, by a tremulous 
motion, indicated the retarn of life, and began his char- 
itable work of removing the rings, which seemed to be oj 
some value. 

As you love your life, forbear,” said Norna sternly, 
‘ or I will lay that on you which shall spoil your travels 
through the isles.” 


100 


THE PIRATE. 


Now, for mercy’s sake, mother, say nae mair aboul 
it,” said the pedlar, “ and I’ll e’en do your pleasure in 
your ain way 1 I did feel a rheumatize in my back-spauld 
yestreen ; and it wad be a sair thing for the like of me to 
be debarred my quiet walk round the country, in the wa} 
of trade — making the honest penny, and helping raysell 
with what Providence sends on our coasts.” 

“ Peace, then,” said the woman — ‘‘ Peace, as thou 
vvouldst not rue it ; and take this man on thy broad shoul- 
deis. His life is of value, and you will be rewarded.” 

“ I had muckle need,” said the pedlar, pensively look- 
ing at the lidless chest, and the other matters which 
strewed the sand ; “ for he has come between me and 
as muckle spreacherie as wad hae made a man of me for 
the rest of my life ; and now it maun lie here till the next 
tide sweep it a’ doun the Roost, after them that aught it 
yesterday morning.” 

“ Fear not,” said Norna, “ it will come to man’s use. 
See, there come carrion-crows, of scent as keen as thine 
own.” 

She spoke truly ; for several of the people from the 
hamlet of Jarlshof were now hastening along the beach, 
to have their share in the spoil. The pedlar beheld them 
approach with a deep groan. “ Ay, ay,” he said, ‘‘the 
folk of Jarlshof, they will make clean wark ; they are 
kend for that far and wide 5 they winna leave the value 
of a rotten ratlin ; and what’s waur, there isna ane o’ 
them has mense or sense eneugh to give thanks for the 
mercies when they have gotten them,. There is the auld 
ranzelman, Neil Ronaldson, that canna walk a mile to 
hear the minister, but he will hirple ten if he hears of a 
ship embayed.” 

Norna, however, seemed to possess over him so com- 
plete an ascendency, that he no longer hesitated to take 
the man, who now gave strong symptoms of reviving ex- 
istence, upon his shoulders ; and, assisted by Mordaunt, 
trudged along the sea-beach with his burden, without 
farther remonstrance. Ere he was borne off, the stran- 
ger pointed to the chest,' and attempted to mutter some* 


THE PIRATE. 


101 


tiling, to which Nonia replied, ‘‘ Enough. It shall be 
secured.’’ 

Advancing towards the passage called Erick’s steps, by 
which they were to ascend the cliffs, they met the people 
from Jarlshof, hastening in the opposite direction. Man 
and woman, as they passed, reverently made room for 
Norna, and saluted her — not without an expression of 
fear upon some of their faces. She passed them a few 
paces, and then turning back, called aloud to the ranzel- 
man, who (though the practice was more common than 
legal) was attending the rest of the hamlet upon tliis 
plundering expedition. “ Neil Ronaldson,” she said, 
“ mark my words. There stands yonder a chest, from 
which the lid has been just prized off. Look it be 
brought down to your own house at Jarlshof, just as it no\^ 
is. Bew'are of moving or touching the slightest article. 
He wei e better in his grave, that so much as looks at the 
contents. I speak not for nought, nor in aught will I be 
disobeyed.” 

“ Your pleasure shall be done, mother,” said Ronald 
son. “ I warrant we will not break bulk, since sic is 
your bidding.” 

Far behind the rest of the villagers, followed an old 
woman, talking to herself, and cursing her own decrepi- 
tude, which kept her the last of the party, yet pressing 
forward with all her might to get her share of the spoil. 

When they met her, Mordaunt was astonished to re- 
cognize his father’s old housekeeper. “ How now,” he 
said, “ Swertha, what make you so far from home 

“ Just e’en daikering out to look after my auld master 
and your honour,” replied Swertha, who felt like a crim- 
inal caught in the manner ; for on more occasions than 
one, Mr. Mertoun had intimated his high disapprobation 
of such excursions as she was at present engaged in. 

But Mordaunt was too much engaged with his own 
thoughts to take much notice of her delinquency. “ Have 
you seen my father ?’ he said. 

VOL. I. 


102 


THE PIRATE. 


‘‘ And that I have,” replied Swertha — ‘‘ The gude 
gentleman was ganging to hirsel himsell doun Erick’s 
steps, whilk would have been the ending of him, that is 
n no way a cragsman. Sae I e’en gat him wiled away 
hame — and 1 was just seeking you that you may gang 
after him to the hall-house, for, to my thought, he is far 
frae week” 

“ My father unwell ?” said Mordaunt, remembering the 
faintness he had exhibited at the commencement of that 
morning’s walk. 

“ Far frae weei — far frae weel,” groaned out Swertha, 
with a piteous shake of the head — ‘‘ white o’ the gills — 
white o’ the gills — and him to think of coming down the 
riva !” 

‘‘ Return home, Mordaunt,” said Norna, who was list 
ening to what had passed. “ I will see all that is neces 
sary done for this man’s relief, and you will find him at 
the ranzelman’s when you list to inquire. You cannot 
help him more than you already have done.’’ 

Mordaunt felt this was true, and, commanding Swertha 
to follow him instantly, betook himself to the path home- 
ward. 

Swertha hobbled reluctlantly after her young master in 
the same direction, until she lost sight of him on his en- 
tering the cleft of the rock ; then instantly turned about, 
muttering to herself, “ Haste home, in good sooth ? — 
haste home, and lose the best chance of getting a new 
rokelay and owerlay that I have had these ten years ^ by 
my certie, na — It’s seldom sic rich godsends come on 
our shore — no since the Jenny and James came ashore in 
King Charlie’s time.” 

So saying, she mended her pace as well as she could, 
and a willing mind making amends for frail limbs, posted 
on with wonderful despatch to put in for her share of the 
spoil. She soon reached the beach, where the ranzel- 
man, stuffing his own pouches all the while, was exliorting 
the rest to part things fair, and be neighbourly, and to 
give to the auld and helpless a share of what was going 


THE PIRATE. 


103 


which, he charitably remarked, would bring a blessing on 
the shore, and send them “ mair wrecks ere winter.”^^ 


CHAPTER VIII. 


*' He was a lovely youth, I guess ; 

The panther in the wilderness 
Was not so fair as he 5 
And when lie chose to sport and play, 
No dolphin ever was so gay, 

Upon the tropic sea.” 

Wordsworth. 


The light foot of Mordaunt Mertoun was not long of 
bearing him to Jarlshof. He entered the house hastily ; 
for what he himself had observed that morning, corres- 
ponded in some degree with the ideas which Swertha’s 
tale was calculated to excite. He found his father, how- 
ever, in the inner apartment, reposing himself after his 
fatigue ; and his first question satisfied him that the good 
dame had practised a little imposition to get rid of them 
both. 

“ Where is this dying man, whom you have so wisely 
ventured your own neck to relieve ?” said the elder Mer- 
toun to the younger. 

‘‘ Norna, sir,” replied Mordaunt, “ has taken him un- 
der her charge ; she understands such matters.” 

“ And is quack as well as witch ?” said the elder Mer- 
toun. “ With all my heart — it is a trouble saved. But 
[ hasted home, on Swertha’s hint, to look out for lint and 
bandages ; for her speech was of broken bones.” 

Mordaunt kept silence, well knowing his father would 
not persevere in his inquiries upon such a matter, and not 
willing either to prejudice the old governante, or to excite 
his father to one of those excesses of passion into which 
lie was apt to burst, when, contrary to his wont, he thought 
proper to correct the conduct of his domestic. 


£04 


THE PIRATE. 


It was late in the day ere old Swertha returned from 
her expedition, heartily fatigued, and bearing with her a 
bundle of some bulk, containing, it would seem, her share 
of the spoil. Mordaunt instantly sought her out, to charge 
her with the deceits she had practised on both his father 
and himself ; but the accused matron lacked not her 
reply. 

“ By her troth,” she said, “ she thought it was time 
to bid Mr. Mertoun gang hame and get bandages, when 
she had seen, with her ain twa een, Mordaunt ganging 
down the cliff like a wild-cat — it was to be thought broken 
bones would be the end, and lucky if bandages wad do 
any good ; — -and, by her troth, she might weel tell Mor- 
daunt his father was puirly, and him looking sae white in 
the gills, (whilk, she wad die upon it, was the very word 
she used,) and it was a thing that couldna be denied by 
man at this very moment.” 

“ But, Swertha,” said Mordaunt, as soon as her clam- 
orous defence gave him time to speak in reply, “ how 
came you, that should have been busy with your house- 
wifery and your spinning, to be out this morning at Erick’s 
steps, in order to take all this unnecessary care of my 
father and me ? — And what is in that bundle, Swertha ? 
for I fear, Swertha, you have been transgressing the law, 
ind have been out upon the wrecking system.” 

“ Fair fa’ your sonsy face, and the blessing of Saint 
Ronald upon you !” said Swertha, in a tone betwixt coax- 
ing and jesting ; “ would you keep a puirbody frae mend- 
ing hersell, and sae muckle gear lying on the loose sand 
for the lifting ? — Hout, Maister Mordaunt, a ship ashore 
is a sight to wile the minister out of his very pu’pit in the 
middle of his preaching, muckle mair a puir auld *gno- 
rant wife frae her rock and her tow. And little did I get 
for my day’s wark — just some rags o’ cambric things, and 
a bit or twa of coorse claith, and sic like — the strong ana 
the hearty get a’ thing in this warld.” 

“ Yes, Swertha,” replied Mordaunt, “and that is rather 
hard, as you must have your share of punishment in this 
world and the next, for robbing the poor mariners ” 


THE PIRATE. 


106 


“ Hout, callant, wha wad punish an auld wife like me 
for a wheen duds? — Folk speak muckle black ill of Earl 
Patrick ; but he was a freend to the shore, and made wise 
laws against onybody helping vessels that were like to 
gang on the breakers.* — ^And the mariners, I have heard 
Bryce dagger say, lose their right frae the time keel 
touches sand ; and, moreover, they are dead and gane, 
puir souls — dead and gane, and care little about warld'i 
wealth now — Nay, nae mair than the great Jarls and Sea- 
kings, in the Norse days, did about the treasures that they 
buried in the tombs and sepulchres- auld lang syne. Did 
I ever tell you the sang, Maister Mordaunt, how Olal 
Tryguarson gard hide five gold crowns in the same grave 
with him ?’’ 

“ No, Swertha,” said Mordaunt, who took pleasure in 
tormenting the cunning old plunderer — “ You never told 
me that ; but 1 tell you, that the stranger whom Norna 
has taken down to the town, will be well enough to-mor 
row, to ask where you have hidden the goods that you 
have stolen from the wreck.” 

“ But wha will tell him a word about it, hinnie ?” said 
Swertha, looking slily up in her young master’s face — 
“ The mair by token, since I maun tell ye, that I have a 
bonnie remnant of silk amang the lave, that will make a 
dainty waistcoat to yoursell, the first merry-making ye 
gang to.” 

Mordaunt could no longer forbear laughing at the cun- 
ning with which the old dame proposed to bribe off his 
evidence by imparting a portion of her plunder ; and, 
desiring her to get ready what provisions she had made 
for dinner, he returned to his father, whom he found still 
sitting in the same place, and nearly in the same posture, 
in which he had left him. 

When their hasty and frugal meal was finished, Mor- 
daunt announced to his father his purpose of going down 
to the town, or hamlet, to look after the shipwrecked 
sailor. 


* This was literally trae. 


.06 


THE PIRATE. 


Tlie elder Mertoun assented with a nod. 

He must be ill accommodated there, sir,” added his 
son, — a hint whiclf only produced another nod of assent. 

He seemed, from his appearance,” pursued Mordaunt, 
“ to be of very good rank — and, admitting these poor 
people do their best to receive him, in his present weak 
state, yet” 

“ 1 know what you would say,” said his father, inter- 
rupting him ; we, you think, ought to do something 
towards assisting him. Go to him, then — if he lacks 
money, let him name the sum, and he shall have it ; but, 
for lodging the stranger here, and holding intercourse with 
him, I neither can nor will do so. I have retired to this 
farthest extremity of the British isles, to avoid new friends, 
and new faces, and none such shall intrude on me either 
their happiness or their misery. When you have known 
the world half a score of years longer, your early friends 
will have given you reason to remember them, and to 
avoid new ones for the rest of your life. Go, then — why 
do you stop ? — rid the country of the man — let me see 
no one about me but those vulgar countenances, the ex- 
tent and character of whose petty knavery I know, and 
can submit to, as to an evil too trifling to cause irritation.” 
He then threw his purse to his son, and signed to him to 
depart with all speed. 

Mordaunt was not long before he reached the village. 
In the dark abode of Neil Ronaldson, the ranzelman, he 
found the stranger seated by the peat-fire, upon the very 
chest which had excited the cupidity of the devout Bryce 
Snailsfoot, the pedlar. The ranzelman himself was ab- 
sent, dividing, with all due impartiality, the spoils of the 
wrecked vessel amongst the natives of the community 
listening to and redressing their complaints of inequal- 
ity ; and (if the matter in hand had not been, from 
beginning to end, utterly unjust and indefensible) dis- 
charging the part of a wise and prudent magistrate, in 
all the details. For at this time, and probab’y until a 
much later period, the lower orders of the islanders en- 
tertained an opinion, common to barbarians also when in 


THE PIRATE. 


107 


the same situation, that whatever was cast on their shores, 
became their indisputable property. 

Margery Bimbister, the worthy spouse of the ranzel- 
man, was in the charge of the house, and introduced 
Mordaunt to her guest, saying, with no great ceremony, 
“ This is the young tacksman — ^You will maybe tell him 
your name, though you will not tell it to us. If it liad 
not been for his four quarters, it’s but little you would 
have said to any body, sae lang as life lasted.” 

The stranger arose, and shook Mordaunt by the hand 
observing, hp understood that he had been the means ot 
saving his life and his chest. “ The rest of the property,” 
he said, “ is, I see, walking the plank ; for they are as 
busy as the devil in a gale of wind.” 

“ And what was the use of your seamanship, then,” 
said Margery, “ that you couldna keep off the Sumburgh- 
head ? It would have been long ere Sumburgh-head had 
come to you.” 

“ Leave us for a moment, good Margery Bimbister,” 
said Mordaunt ; “ I wish to have some private conversa- 
tion with this gentleman.” 

“ Gentleman !” said Margery, with an emphasis ; ‘‘ not 
but the man is well enough to look at,” she added, again 
surveying him, “ but I doubt if there is muckle of the 
gentleman about him.” 

Mordaunt looked at the stranger, and was of a differ- 
ent opinion. He was rather above the middle size, and 
formed handsomely as well as strongly. Mordaunt’s in- 
tercourse with society was not extensive ; but he thought 
his new acquaintance, to a bold sun-burnt handsome coun- 
tenance, which seemed to have faced various climates, 
added the frank and open manners of a sailor. He an- 
swered cheerfully the inquiries which Mordaunt made 
after his health ; and maintained that one night’s rest 
would relieve him from all the effects of the disaster he 
had sustained. But he spoke with bitterness of the ava- 
rice and curiosity of the ranzelman and his spouse. 

“ That chattering old woman,” said the stranger, “ has 
perseo Ued me tlie whole day for the name of the ship. 


THE PIRATE. 


H)8 

I think she might be contented with the share she has had 
of it. I was the principal owner of the vessel that was 
lost yonder, and they have left me nothing but my wear- 
ing apparel. Is there no magistrate, or justice of the 
peace, in this wild country, that would lend a hand to 
help one when he is among the breakers ?” 

Mordaunt mentioned Magnus Troil, the principal pro- 
prietor, as well as the Fowd, or provincial judge of the 
district, as the person from whom he was most likely to 
obtain redress ; and regretted that his own youth, and his 
father’s situation as a retired stranger, should put it out 
of their power to afford him the protection he required. 

Nay, for your part you have done enough,” said the 
sailor ; “ but if I had five out of the forty brave fellows 
that are fishes’ food by this time, the devil a man would I 
ask to do me the right that I could do for myself.” 

“ Forty hands !” said Mordaunt ; ^ you were well 
manned for the size of the ship.” 

Not so well as vye needed to be. We mounted ten 
guns, besides chasers ; but our cruise on the main had 
thinned us of men, and lumbered us up with goods. Six 
of our guns were in ballast. — Hands ! if 1 had had enough 
of hands, we would never have miscarried so infernally. 
The people were knocked up with working the pumps, 
and so took to their boats, and left me with the vessel, to 
sink or swim. But the dogs had their pay, and I can 
afford to pardon them — the boats swamped in the current 
— all were lost — and here am I.” 

“ You had come north about then, from the West In- 
dies said Mordaunt. 

“ Ay, ay ; the vessel was the Good Hope of Bristol, a 
letter of marque. She had fine luck down on the Span- 
ish main, both with commerce and privateering, but the 
luck’s ended with her now. My name is Clement Cleve- 
land captain, and part owner, as I said before — I am s 
Bristol man born — my father was well known on the 
Tollsell — old Clem Cleveland of the College-green.” 

Mordaunt had no right to inquire farther, and yet it 
seemed to him as if his own mind was but half-satisfied 


THE PIRATE. 


109 


There was an afFectat'on of bluniness, a sort of defiance, 
in the manner of the stranger, for which circumstances 
afforded no occasion. Captain Cleveland had suffered 
injustice from the islanders, but from Mordaunt he had 
only received kindness and protection ; yet he seemed 
as if he involved all the neighbourhood in the wrongs he 
complained of. Mordaunt looked down and was silent, 
doubting whether it would be better to take his leave, or 
to proceed farther in his offers of assistance. Cleveland 
seemed to guess at his thoughts, for he immediately add 
ed, in a conciliating manner, — “ I am a plain man. Mas- 
ter Mertoun, for that I understand is your name, and I 
am a ruined man to boot, and that does not mend one’s 
good manners. But you have done a kind and friendly 
part by me, and it may be I think as much of it as if I 
thanked you more. And so before I leave this place, 
ril give you my fowling-piece ; she will put a hundred 
swan-shot through a Dutchman’s cap at eighty paces — 
she will carry ball too — I have hit a wild bull within a 
hundred-and-fifty yards — but 1 have two pieces that are 
as good, or better, so you may keep this for my sake.” 

“ That would be to take my share of the wreck,” an- 
swered Mordaunt, laughing. 

“ No such matter,” said Cleveland, undoing a case 
which contained several guns and pistols, — “ you see 1 
have saved my private arm-chest, as well as my clothes — 
that the tall old woman in the dark rigging managed for 
me. And, between ourselves, it is worth all I have lost 
for, he added, lowering his voice and looking round, 
“ when I speak of being ruined in the hearing of these 
land-sharks, I do not mean ruined stock and block : No, 
here is something will do more than shoot sea-fowl.” So 
saying, he pulled out a great ammunition-pouch marked 
swan-shot, and showed Mordaunt hastily that it was full 
of Spanish pistoles and Portagues (as the broad Portugal 
pieces were then called.) “ No, no,” he added, with a 
smile, ‘‘ I have ballast enough to trim the vessel again 
and now, will you take the piece ?” 

VOL. I. 


no 


THE PIRATE 


»• Since you are willing to give it me,” said Moi daunt, 
laughing, “ with all my heart. I was just going to ask 
you, rn my father’s name,” he added, showing his purse, 
whether you wanted any of that same ballast.” 

“ Thanks, but you see I am provided — take my old 
acquaintance, and may she serve you as well as she has 
served me ; but you will never make so good a voyage 
with her. You can shoot I suppose ?” 

“ Tolerably well,” said Mordaunt, admiring the piece, 
which was a beautiful Spanish-barrel gun, inlaid with gold, 
small in the bore, and of unusual length, such as is chiefly 
used for shooting sea-fowl, and for ball-practice. 

“ With slugs,” continued the donor, “ never gun shot 
closer ; and with single ball, you may kill a seal two hun- 
dred yards at sea from the top of the highest peak of 
this iron-bound coast of yours. But I tell you again, 
that the old rattler will never do you the service she has 
done me.” 

“ I shall not use her so dexterously, perhaps,” said 
Mordaunt. 

“ Umph !~perhaps not,” replied Cleveland ; “ biit 
that is not the question. What say you to shooting the 
man at the wheel, just as we run aboard of a Spaniard? 
so the Don was taken aback, and we laid him athwart 
the hawse, and carried her, cutlass in hand ; and worth 
the while she was — stout brigantine — El Santo Francisco 
— bound for Porto Bello, with gold and negroes. That 
little bit of lead was worth twenty thousand pistoles.” 

‘‘ I ha»^e shot at no such game as yet,” sai(l Mordaunt. 

“ Well, all in good time ; we cannot weigh till the tide 
makes. But you are a tight, handsome, active young 
man. What is to ail you to take a trip after some of this 
stuff?” laying his hand on the bag of gold. 

“ My father talks of my travelling soon,” replied Mor- 
daunt, who, born to hold men-of-war’s men in great 
respect, felt flattered by this invitation from one who 
appeared a thorough-bred seaman. 

“ I respect him for the thought,” said the Captain ; 
** and 1 will visit him before I weigh anchor. I have a 


THE PIRATE. 


in 


consort off these islands, and be cursed U her. She’ll 
find me out somewhere, though she parted company in 
the bit of a squall, unless she is gone to Davy Jones too 
— Well, she was better found than we, and not so deeji 
loaded — she must have weathered it. We’ll have a ham- 
mock slung for you aboard, and make a sailor and a man 
of you in the same trip.” 

“ I should like it well enough,” said Mordaunt, who 
eagerly longed to see more of the world than his lonely 
situation had hitlierto permitted ; “ but then my father 
must decide.” 

“ Your father ? pooh !” said Captain Cleveland ; — 
“ but you are very right,” he added checking himself 
“ Gad, I have lived so long at sea, that I cannot imagine 
any body has a right to think except the captain and the 
master. But you are very right. I will go up to the 
old gentleman this instant, and speak to him myself. 
He lives in that handsome modern-looking building, I 
suppose, that I see a quarter of a mile off?” 

“In that old half-ruined house,” said Mordaunt, “he 
does indeed live ; but he will see no visiters.” 

“ Then you must drive the point yourself, for I can’t 
stay in this latitude. Since your father is no magistrate, 
I must go to see this same Magnus — how call you him ? — 
who is not justice of peace, but something else that will 
do the turn as well. These fellows have got two or three 
things that I must and will have back — let them keep the 
rest and be d — d to them ! Will you give me a letter to 
him, just by way of commission ?” 

“ It is scarce needful,” said Mordaunt. “ It is enough 
that you are shipwrecked, and need his help ; — but yet I 
may as well furnish you with a letter of introduction. 

“ There,” said the sailor, producing a writing-case 
from his chest, “ are your writing*-tools. — Meantime, 
since bulk has been broken, I will nail down the hatches, 
and make sure of the cargo.” 

While Mordaunt, accordingly, was engaged in writing 
0 Magnus Troil a letter, setting forth the circumstances 


112 


THE PIRATE. 


in which Captain C'leveland had been llirown upon their 
coast, the Captain, having first selected and laid aside 
some wearing apparel and necessaries enough to fill a 
knapsack, took in hand hammer and nails, employed him- 
self in securing the lid of his sea-chest, by fastening it down 
in a workmanlike manner, and then added the corroborat 
ing security of a cord, twisted and knotted with nautical 
dexterity. “ J leave this in your charge,” he said, “ all 
except this,” showing the bag of gold, “ and these,” 
pointing to a cutlass and pistols, “ which may prevent all 
further risk of my parting company with my Portagues.” 

‘‘ You will find no occasion for weapons in this coun- 
try, Captain Cleveland,” replied Mordaunt ; ‘‘ a child 
might travel with a purse of gold from Sumburgh-head 
to the Scaw of Unst, and no soul would injure him.” 

And that’s pretty boldly said, young gentleman, con- 
sidering what is going on without doors at this moment.” 

“ O,” replied Mordaunt, a little confused, what 
comes on land with the tide, they reckon their lawful prop- 
erty. One would think they had studied under Sir. Ar- 
thegal, who pronounces — 

For equal right in equal things doth stand, 

And what the mighty sea hath once possess’d, 

And plucked quite from all possessors’ hands. 

Or else by wrecks that wretches have distress’d 
He may dispose, by his resistless might. 

As things at random left, to whom he list.” 


“ I shall think the better of plays and ballads as long 
as I live, for these very words,” said Captain Cleve- 
land ; “ and yet I have loved them well enough in my 
day. But this is good doctrine, and more men than one 
may trim their sails to such a breeze. What the sea 
sends is ours, that’s sure enough. However, in case tJiat 
your good folks should think the land as well as the sea 
may present them with waifFs and strays, I wdll make bold 
to take my cutlass and pistols. — Will you cause my dies? 
to be srcured in your own house till you hear from me 


THE PIRATE. 


113 


and use your influence to procure me a guide to show me 
the way, and to carry my kit ?” 

Will you go by sea or land ?” said Mor daunt, in 
reply. 

“ By sea !” exclaimed Cleveland. “Wtat — in one 
of these cockle-shells, and a cracked cockle-shell, to boot? 
No, no, — land, land, unless I knew my crew my vessel, 
and my voyage.” 

They parted accordingly. Captain Cleveland being 
supplied with a guide to conduct him to Burgh-Westra, 
and his chest being carefully removed to the mansion- 
house at Jarlshof. 


CHAPTER IX. 

This is a gentle trader, and a prudent. 

He's no Autolycus, to blear your eye 

With quips of worldly gauds and gamesomeness ] 

But seasons all his glittering merchandize 
With wholesome doctrines suited to the use. 

As men sauce goose with sage and rosemary. 

OH Play 

On the subsequent morning, Mordaunt, in answer to 
his father’s inquiries, began to give him some account of 
the shipwrecked mariner, whom he had rescued from 
the waves. But he had not proceeded far in recapitulat- 
ing the particulars which Cleveland had communicated 
when Mr. Mertoun’s looks became disturbed — he arose 
hastily, and, after pacing twice or thrice across the room 
he retired into the inner chamber, to which he usually 
confined himself, while under the influence of his mental 
malady. In the evening he re-appeared, without any 
traces of his disorder ; but it may be easily supposed that 
his son avoided recurring to the subject which had aflect- 
ed him. 


VOL. I. 


114 


THE PIRATE. 


Mordaunt Mertoun was thus left without assistance, to 
form at his leisure his own opinion respecting the new 
acquaintance which the sea had sent him ; and upon the 
whole, he was himself surprised to find the result less 
favourable to the stranger than he could well account for. 
There seemed to Mordaunt to be a sort of repelling in- 
fluence about the man. True, he was a handsome man, 
of a frank and prepossessing manner, but there was an 
assumption of superiority about him, which Mordaunt did 
not quite so much like. Although he was so keen a 
sportsman as to be delighted with his acquisition of the 
Spanish-barrelled gun, and accordingly mounted and dis- 
mounted it with great interest, paying the utmost attention 
to the most minute parts about the lock and ornaments, 
yet he was, upon the whole, inclined to have some scru- 
ples about the mode in which he had acquired it. 

“ I should not have accepted it,” he thought ; “ per- 
haps Captain Cleveland might give it me as a sort of pay- 
ment for the trifling service I did him ; and yet it would 
have been churlish to refuse it in the way it was ofiered. 
[ wish he had looked more like a man whom one would 
have chosen to be obliged to.” 

But a successful day’s shooting reconciled him to 
his gun, and he became assured, like most young sports- 
men in similar circumstances, that all other pieces were 
out pop-guns in comparison. But then, to be doomed to 
shoot gulls and seals, when there were Frenchmen and 
Spaniards to be come at — when there were ships to be 
boarded, and steersmen to be marked olF, seemed but a 
dull and contemptible destiny. His father had mentioned 
his leaving these islands, and no other mode of occupation 
occurred to his inexperience, save that of the sea, witli 
which he had been conversant from his infancy. His 
ambition had formerly aimed no higher than at sharing 
the fatigues and dangers of a Greenland fishing expedi- 
tion ; for it was in that scene that the Zetlanders laid 
most of their perilous adventures. But war was again 
raging, the history of Sir Francis Drake, Captain Morgan, 
and other bold adventurers, an account of whose exploits 


THE PIRATE. 


115 


he had purchased from Bryce Snailsfoot, had made much 
impression on his mind, and the offer of Captain Cleve- 
land to take him to sea, frequently recurred to him, 
although the pleasure of such a project was somewhat 
damped by a doubt, whether, in the long run, he should 
not find many objections to his proposed commander. 
Thus much he already saw, that he was opinionative, and 
might probably prove arbitrary ; and that, since even his 
kindness was mingled with an assumption of superiority, 
his occasional displeasure might contain a great deal more 
of that disagreeable ingredient than could be palatable 
to those who sailed under him. And yet, after counting 
all risks, could his father’s consent be obtained, with 
what pleasure, he thought, would he embark in quest of 
new scenes and strange adventures, in which he proposed 
to himself to achieve such deeds as should be the theme of 
many a tale to the lovely sisters of Burgh- Westra — tales 
at which Minna should weep, and Brenda should smile, 
and both should marvel ! And this was to be the reward 
of his labours and his dangers ; for the hearth of Magnus 
Troil had a magnetic influence over his thoughts, and 
however they might traverse amid his day-dreams, it was 
the point where they finally settled. 

There were times when Mordaunt thought of mention- 
ing to his father the conversation he had held with Cap- 
tain Cleveland, and the seaman’s proposal to him ; but 
the very short and general account which he had given 
of that person’s history, upon the morning after his de- 
parture from the hamlet, had produced a sinister effect 
on Mr. Mertoun’s mind, and discouraged him from 
speaking farther on any subject connected with it. It 
would be time enough, he thought, to mention Captain 
Cleveland’s proposal, when his consort should arrive, and 
when he should repeat his offer in a more formal manner ; 
and these he supposed events likely very soon to hap- 
pen. 

But days grew to weeks, and weeks were numberea 
into months, and he heard nothing from Cleveland ; and 
only learned by an occasional visit from Bryce Snailsfoot 
6 


116 


THE PIRATE. 


that me Captain was residing at Burgh-Weslra, as one of 
the family. Mordaunt was somewhat surprised at this, 
although the unlimited hospitality of the islands, which 
Magnus Troil, both from fortune and disposition, carried 
to the utmost extent, made it almost a matter of course 
that he should remain in the family until he disposed of 
himself otherwise. Still it seemed strange he had not 
gone to some of the northern isles to inquire after his 
consort ; or that he did not rather chocse to make Ler- 
wick his residence, where fishing vessels often brought 
news from the coasts and ports of Scotland and Holland. 
Again, why did he not send for the chest he had deposit- 
ed at Jarlshof ? and still farther, Mordaunt thought it 
would have been but polite if the stranger had sent him 
some sort of message in token of remembrance. 

These subjects of reflection were connected with anoth- 
er still more unpleasant, and more difficult to account for. 
Until the arrival of this person, scarce a week had passed 
without bringing him some kind greeting, or token of 
recollection, from Burgh-Westra ; and pretences were 
scarce ever wanting for maintaining a constant intercourse. 
Minna wanted the words of a Norse ballad ; or desired 
to have, for her various collections, feathers, or eggs, or 
shells, or specimens of the rarer sea-weeds ; or Brenda 
sent a riddle to be resolved, or a song to be learned ; or 
the honest old Udaller, — in a rude manuscript, which 
might have passed for an ancient Runic inscription, — sent 
liis hearty greetings to his good young friend, with a pres- 
ent of som(3thing to make good cheer, and an earnest re- 
quest he would come to Burgh-Westra as soon, ailcT stay 
there as long, as possible. These kindly tokens of re- 
membrance were often sent by special message ; besides 
which, there was never a passenger or a traveller, who 
crossed from the one mansion to the other, who did not 
bring to Mordaunt some friendly greeting from the Udaller 
and his family. Of late, this intercourse had become 
more and more infrequent ; and no messenger from Burgh 
Westra had visited Jarlshof for several weeks. Mor- 
daunt both observed and felt this alteration, and it dwelt 


THE PIRATE. 


Ill 


Dn his mind, while he questioned Bryce as cbsely as 
pride and prudence would permit, to ascertain, if possi- 
ble, tlie cause of the change. Yet he endeavoured to 
assume an indifferent air while he asked the jagger wheth- 
er there were no news in the country. 

“ Great news,” the jagger replied ; “ and a gay mony 
of them. That crack-brained carle, the new factor, is foi 
making a change in the hismars and the lispunds ;* and 
our worthy Fowd,1VIagnus Troil, has sworn, that, sooner 
than change them for the still-yard, or aught else, he’ll 
fling Factor Yellowley from Brassa-craig.” 

“ Is that all?” said Mordaunt, very little interested. 

“ All ? and eneugh, 1 think,” replied the pedlar. 

‘ How are folks to buy and sell, if the weights are chang- 
ed on them ?” 

“ Very true,” replied Mordaunt , “ but have you 
heard of no strange vessels on the coast ?” 

“ Six Dutch doggers off Brassa ; and, as I hear, a 
high-quartered galliot thing, with a gaff main-sail, lying 
in Scalloway Bay. She will be from Norway.” 

‘‘ No ships of war, or sloops ?” 

‘‘ None,” replied the pedlar, “ since the Kite Tender 
sailed with the impress men. If it was His will, and our 
men were out of her, I wish the deep sea had herl” 

“ Were there no news at Burgh-Westra ? — Were the 
family all well ?” 

“ A’ weel, and weel to do— out-taken, it maybe, some- 
thing ower muckle dafling and laughing — dancing ilk 
night, they say, wi’ the stranger captain that’s living there 
■ — him that was ashore on Sumburgh-head the tother day, 
— less daffing served him then.” 

“ Dafling ! dancing every night !” said Mordaunt, not 
particularly well satisfied, — “ Whom does Captain Cleve- 
land dance with ?” 

‘‘ Ony body he likes, I fancy,” said the jagger ; “ at 
ony rate, he gars a’ body yonder dance after his fiddle. 
But I ken little about it, for I am no free in conscience to 


These are weights of Norwegian origin, still used in Zetland. 


118 


THE PIRATE. 


look upon thae flinging fancies. Folk should mirxi tfiJit 
I fe is made but of rotten yarn.” 

“ I fancy that it is to keep them in mind of that whole- 
some truth, that you deal in such tender wares, Bryce,” 
replied Mordaunt, dissatisfied as well with the tenor of 
the reply, as with the affected scruples of the respondent. 

“ That’s as muckle as to say, that I suld hae minded 
you was a flinger and a fiddler yoursell, Maister Mor- 
daunt ; but I am an auld man, and rnaun unburden my 
conscience. But ye will be for the dance, I sail warrant, 
that’s to be at Burgh-Westra, on John’s Even, (Saunt 
John’s, as the blinded creatures ca’ him ;) and nae doubt 
ye will be for some warldly braws — hose, waistcoats, oi 
sic like? 1 hae pieces frae Flanders” — With that he 
placed his movable warehouse on the table, and began 
to unlock it. 

“ Dance !” repeated Mordaunt — “ Dance on Saint 
John’s even ? — Were you desired to bid me to it, Bryce ?” 

“ Na — ^but ye ken weel eneugh ye wad be welcome, 
bidden or no bidden. This captain — how ca* ye him } — 
is to be skudler as they ca’t — the first of the gang, like.” 

The devil take him !” said Mordaunt, in impatient 
surprise. 

“ A’ in gude time,” replied the jagger ; “ hurry no 
man’s cattle — the devil will hae his due, I warrant ye, or 
it winna be for lack of seeking. But it’s true I’m telling 
you, for a’ ye stare like a wild-cat ; and this same cap 
tain — I watna his name — bought ane of the very waist- 
coats that I am ganging to show ye — purple, wi’ a gowd 
binding, and bonnily broidered ; and I have a piece for 
you, the neighbour of it, wi’ a green grund ; and if ye 
mean to streak yoursell up beside him, ye maun e’en buy 
it, for it’s gowd that glances in the lasses’ een now-a-days. 
See, look till’t,” he added, displaying the pattern in vari- 
ous points of view ; “ look till it through the light, and 
till the light through it — wi’ the grain, and against the 
grain — it shows ony gate — cam frae Antwerp a’ the gate 
■ — four dollars is the price ; and yon captain was sae weel 
pleased that he flang down a twenty shilling Jacobus, and 


THE PIRA.TE. 


119 


oade me keep the change and he d d ! — poor s.Hy 

profane creature, I pity him.” 

Without inquiring whether the pedlar bestowed his 
compassion on the worldly imprudence or the religious 
deficiencies of Captain Cleveland, Mordaunt turned from 
nim, folded his arms, and paced the apartment, muttering 
to himself, “ Not asked — A stranger to be king of the 
feast !” — Words which he repeated so earnestly, that 
Bryce caught a part of their import. 

‘‘ As for asking, I am almaist bauld to say, that ye will 
be asked, Maister Mordaunt.” 

“ Did they mention my name then ?” said Mordaunt. 

“ I canna preceesely say that,” said Bryce Snailsfoot • 
“ but ye needna turn away your head sae sourly, like a 
sealgh when he leaves the shore ; for, do you see, I heard 
distinctly that a’ the revellers about are to be there ; and 
is’t to be thought they would leave out you, an auld kend 
freend, and the lightest foot at sic frolics, (Heaven send 
you a better praise in His ain gude time !) that ever flang 
at a fiddle-squeak, between this and Unst ? Sae I con- 
sider ye altogether the same as invited — and ye had best 
provide yourself wi’ a waistcoat, for brave and brisk will 
every man be that’s there — the Lord pity them !” 

He thus continued to follow with his green glazen 
eyes, the motions of young Mordaunt Mertoun, who 
was pacing the room in a very pensive manner, which 
the jagger probably misinterpreted, as he thought, like 
Claudio, that if a man is sad, it must needs be because 
he lacks money. Bryce, therefore, after another pause, 
thus accosted him. “Ye needna be sad about the mat- 
ter, Maister Mordaunt ; for although I got the just price 
of the article from the captain-man, yet I maun deal 
fi-eendly wi’ you, as a kend freend and customer, and 
.‘iring the price, as they say, within your purse-mouth — 
or it’s the same to me to let it lie ower till Martinmas, or 
e’en to Candlemas. I am decent in the warld, Maister 
Mordaunt — forbid that I should hurry onybody, far mail 
a freend that has paid me siller afore now. Or I wad be 
content to swap the garment for the value in feathers oi 


THE PIHATE. 


uc 

sea-otters’ skins, or any kind of peltrie — nane kens bet- 
ter than yoursell how to come by sic ware — and 1 am sure 
[ hae furnished you wi’ the primest o’ powder. I dinna 
ken if I tell’d ye it was out o’ the kist of Captain Phm- 
ket, that perished on the Scaw of Unst, wi’ the armed 
brig Mary, sax years syne. He was a prime fowler him- 
self, and luck it was that the kist came ashore dry. I 
sell that to nane but gude marksmen. And so, I was 
saying, if ye had ony wares ye liked to coup^® for the waist- 
coat, I wad be ready to trock wi’ you ; for assuredly ye 
will be wanted at Burgh-Westra, on Saint John’s even ; 
and ye wadna like to look waur than the captain — that 
wadna be setting.” 

“ I will be there, at least, whether wanted or not,” 
said Mordaunt, stopping short in his walk, and taking the 
waistcoat-piece hastily out of the pedlar’s hand ; “ and 
as you say, will not disgrace them.” 

“ Hand a care — hand a care, Maister Mordaunt,” ex- 
claimed the pedlar ; “ ye handle it as it were a bale ot 
coarse wadmaal — ye’ll fray’t to bits — ye might weel say 
my ware is tender — and ye’ll mind the price is four dol- 
lars — Sail I put ye in my book for it ?” 

“ No,” said Mordaunt hastily ; and, taking out his 
purse, he flung down the money. 

“ Grace to ye to wear the garment,” said the joyous 
pedlar, “ and to me to guide the siller ; and protect us 
from earthly vanities, and earthly covetousness ; and send 
you the white linen raiment, wiiilk is mair to be desired 
than the muslins, and cambrics, and lawns, and silks ot 
this world ; and send me the talents which avail more 
than much fine Spanish gold, or Dutch dollars either — ■ 
and — but, God guide the callant, what for is he wrap 
ping the silk up that gate, like a wisp of hay ?” 

At this moment, old Swertha, the housekeeper, enter- 
ed, to whom, as if eager to get rid of the subject, Mor- 
daunt threw his purchase, with something like careless 
disdain ; and, telling her to put it aside, snatched his gun, 
which stood in the corner, threw his shooting accoutre- 
ments about him, and without noticing Bryce's attempt to 


THE PIRATE. 


121 


enter into conversation upon the ‘‘ braw seal-skin, as saft 
as doe-leather,” which made the sling and cover of his 
towling-piece, he left the apartment abruptly. 

The jagger, with those green, goggling, and gain-des- 
crying kind of optics, which we have already described, 
continued gazing for an instant after the customer, who 
treated his wares with such irreverence. 

Swertha also looked after him with some surprise. 
“ The cailant’s in a creel,” quoth she. 

“ In a creel !” echoed the pedlar ; “ he will be as 
wowf as ever his father was. To guide in that gate a 
bargain that cost him four dollars — very, very Fifish, as 
the east-country fisher-folk say.” 

‘‘ Four dollars for that green rag !” said Swertha, 
catching at the words which the jagger had unwarily 
suffered to escape — “ that was a bargain indeed ! I won- 
der whether he is the greater fule, or you the mair rogue, 
Bryce Snailsfoot.” 

1 didna say it cost him preceesely four dollars,” 
said Snailsfoot ; “ but if it had, the lad’s siller’s his aln, 
1 hope ; and he is auld aneugh to make his ain bargains. 
Mair by token, the gudes are weel worth the money, and 
mair.” 

“ Mair by token,” said Swertha coolly, “ I will see 
what his father thinks about it.” 

“ Ye’ll no be sae ill-natured, Mrs. Swertha,” said the 
iagger ; “ that will be but cauld thanks for the bonny 
owerlay that I hae brought you a’ the way frae Lerwick.” 

‘ And a bonny price ye’Jl be setting on’t,” said Swer- 
tha ; “ for that’s the gate your good deeds end.” 

“Ye sail hae the fixing of the price yoursell ; or it 
may lie ower till ye’re buying something for the house, or 
for your master, and it can make a’ ae count.” 

“ Troth and that’s true, Bryce Snailsfoot, I am think- 
ing we’ll want some napery sune — for it’s no to be 
thought we can spin, and the like, as if there was a mis- 
tiess in the house ; and sae we make nane at hame.” 

VOL. I. 


122 


THE PIRATE. 


‘‘ And that’s what I ca’ walking by the word,” said the 
jagger. “ ‘ Go unto those that buy and sell there’s 
muckle profit in that text.” 

“ There is a pleasure in dealing wi’ a discreet man, 
that can make profit of onything,” said Swertha ; “and 
now that I take another look at that daft callant’s 
waistcoat-piece, I think it is honestly worth four dollars.” 


CHAPTER X. 

'• I have possessed the regulation of the weather and the distribution of the 
seasons. The sun has listened to my dictates, and passed from tropic to tropic 
by my direction ; the clouds, at my command, have poured forth their waters.’’ 

Rasselas. 


Ant sudden cause for anxious and mortifying reflec- 
tion, which, in advanced age, occasions sullen and pen- 
sive inactivity, stimulates youth to eager and active exer- 
tion ; as if, like the liurt deer, they endeavour to drown 
the pain of the shaft by the rapidity of motion. When 
Mordaunt caught up his gun, and rushed out of the house 
of Jarlshof, he walked on with great activity over waste 
and wild, without any determined purpose, except that of 
escaping, if possible, from the smart of his own irritation. 
His pride was effectually mortified by the report of the 
jagger, which coincided exactly with some doubts he had 
been led to entertain, by the long and unkind silence of 
his friends at Burgh-Westra. 

If the fortunes of Caesar had doomed him, as the poet 
suggests, to have been 

“ But the best wrestler on the green,” 

it is nevertheless to be presumed, that a foil from a rival, m 
that rustic exercise, would have mortified him as much as 
a defeat from a competitor, when he was struggling foi 
the empery of the world. And even so Mordaunt Mertoun 


THE PIRATE. 


123 


degraded in his own eyes from the height which he had 
occupied as the chief amongst the youth of the island, 
felt vexed and irritated, as well as humbled. The two 
beautiful sisters also, whose smiles all were so desirous of 
acquiring, with wTiom he had lived on terms of such fa 
miliar affection, that, with the same ease and innocence 
there was unconsciously mixed a shade of deeper though 
undefined tenderness than characterizes fraternal love, — 
they also seemed to have forgotten him. He could not 
be ignorant, that, in the universal opinion of all Dunross- 
ness, nay, of the whole Mainland, he might have had 
every chance of being the favoured lover of either ; and 
now at once, and without any failure on his part, he was 
become so little to them, that he had lost even the con- 
sequence of an ordinary acquaintance. The old Udal- 
ler too, whose hearty and sincere character should have 
made him more constant in his friendships, seemed to have 
been as fickle as his daughters, and poor Mordaunt had 
at once lost the smiles of the fair, and the favour of the 
powerful. These were uncomfortable reflections, and he 
doubled his pace, that he might outstrip them if possible. 

Without exactly reflecting upon the route which he 
pursued, Mordaunt w^alked briskly on through a country 
where neither hedge, wall, nor inclosure of any kind, in- 
terrupts tJie steps of the wanderer, until he reached a 
very solitary spot, where, embosomed among steep heathy 
hills, which sunk suddenly down on the verge of the wa- 
ter, lay one of those small fresh-water lakes which are 
common in the Zetland isles, whose outlets form the 
sources of the small brooks and rivulets by which the 
country is watered, and serve to drive the little mills which 
manufacture their grain. 

It was a mild summer day ; the beams of the sun, as 
is not uncommon 'n Zetland, were moderated and shaded 
by a silvery haze, which filled the atmosphere, and, de- 
6troying the strong contrast of light and shade, gave even 
to noon the sober livery of the evening twilight. The 
little lake, not three-quarters of a mile in circuit, lay in 
profound quiet; its surface undimpled, save when one of 


124 


THE PIRATE. 


the numerous water-fowl, whch glided on its surjhce, 
dived for an instant under it. The depth of the water 
gave the whole that cerulean tint of bluish green, which 
occasioned its being called the Green Loch ; and at pres- 
ent, it formed so perfect a mirror to the bleak hills by 
which it was surrounded, and which lay reflected on its 
bosom, that it was difficult to distinguish the water from 
the land ; nay, in the shadowy uncertainty occasioned by 
the thin haze, a stranger could scarce have been sensible 
that a sheet of water lay before him. A scene of more 
complete solitude, having all its peculiarities heightened 
by the extreme serenity of the weather, the quiet grey 
composed tone of the atmosphere, and the perfect silence 
of the elements, could hardly be imagined. The very 
aquatic birds, who frequented the spot in great num- 
bers, forbore their usual flight and screams, and floated in 
profound tranquillity upon the silent water. 

Without taking any determined aim — without having 
any determined purpose — without almost thinking what 
he was about, Mordaunt presented his fowling-piece, and 
fired across the lake. The large swan-shot dimpled its 
surface like a partial shower of hail — the hills took up 
the noise of the report, and repeated it again, and again, 
and again, to all their echoes ; the water-fowl took to wing 
in eddying and confused wheel, answering the echoes 
with a thousand varying screams, from the deep note 
of the swabie or swartback, to the querulous cry of the 
tirracke and kittiewake. 

Mordaunt looked for a moment on the clamorous crowd 
with a feeling of resentment, which he felt disposed at 
the moment to apply to all nature, and all her objects, an- 
imate or inanimate, however little concerned with the 
cause of his internal mortification. 

“ Ay, ay,” he said, ‘‘ wheel, dive, scream, and clam 
our as you will, and all because you have seen a strange 
sight, and heard an unusual sound. There is many a one 
like you in this round world. But you, at least, shall 
learn,” he added, as he re-loaded his gun, “ that strange 
sights and st' inge sounds, ay, and strange acquaintances 


THE PIRATE. 


]25 


to boot, have sometimes a little shade of danger conneci* 
ed with them. — But why should I wreak my own vexa- 
tion on these harmless sea-gulls ?” he subjoined, after a 
moment’s pause ; “ they have nothing to do with the 
friends that have forgotten me. — I loved them all so well, 
— and to be so soon given up for the first stranger whom 
chance threw on the coast !” 

As he stood resting upon his gun, and abandoning his 
mind to the course of these unpleasant reflections, his 
meditations were unexpectedly interrupted by some one 
touching his shoulder. He looked around, and saw Norna 
of the Fitful-head, wrapped in her dark and ample mantle. 
She had seen him from the brow of the hill, and had de- 
scended to the lake, through a small ravine, which con- 
cealed her, until she came with noiseless step so close to 
him that he turned round at her touch. 

Mordaunt Mertoun was by nature neither timorous nor 
credulous, and a course of reading more extensive than 
usual had, in some degree, fortified his mind against the 
attacks of superstition ; but he would have been an ac- 
tual prodigy, if, living in Zetland in the end of the sev- 
enteenth century, he had possessed the philosophy which 
did not exist in Scotland generally, until at least two gen- 
erations later. He doubted in his own mind the extent, 
nay, the very existence, of Norna’s supernatural attri- 
butes, which was a high flight of incredulity in the coun- 
try where they were universally received ; but still his 
incredulity went no farther than doubts. She was un- 
questionably an extraordinary woman, gifted with an 
energy above others, acting upon motives peculiar to her- 
self, and apparently independent of mere earthly consid- 
erations. Impressed with these ideas, which he had 
imbibed from his youth, it was not without something like 
alarm, that he beheld this mysterious female standing on 
a sudden so close beside him, and looking upon him with 
such sad and severe eyes, as those with which the Fatal 
Virgins, who, according to northern mythology, were 
called the Kalkyriur, or “ choosers of the slain,” were 

VOL. I. 


126 


THE PIRATE. 


supposed lo regard the young champions whom they se 
lected to share the banquet of Odin. 

It was, indeed, reckoned unlucky, to say the least, to 
meet with Norna suddenly alone, and in a place remote 
from witnesses ; and she was supposed, on such occa- 
sions, to have been usually a prophetess of evil, as well 
as an omen of misfortune, to those who had such a ren- 
contre. There were few or none of the islanders, how- 
ever familiarized with her occasional appearance in soci- 
ety, that would not have trembled to meet her on the 
solitary banks of the Green Loch. 

“ 1 bring you no evil, Mordaunt Mertoun,” she said, 
reading perhaps something uf this superstitious feeling in 
the looks of the young man. Evil from me you never 
felt, and never will.” 

“ Nor do I fear any,” said Mordaunt, exerting himself 
to throw aside an apprehension which he felt to be un- 
manly. “ Why should I, mother ? you have been ever my 
friend.” 

“ Yet, Mordaunt, thou art not of our region ; but to 
none of Zetland blood, no, not even to those who sit 
around the hearth-stone of Magnus Troil, the noble de- 
scendants of the ancient Jarls of Orkney, am I more a 
well-wisher, than I am to thee, thou kind and brave- 
hearted boy. When I hung around thy neck that gifted 
chain, which all in our isles know was wrought by no 
earthly artist, but by the Drovvs,* in the secret recesses 
of their caverns, thou wert then but fifteen years old ; 
yet thy foot had been on the Maiden-skerrie of North- 
maven, known before but to the webbed sole of the swart- 


* The Drows, or Trows, the legitimate successors of the northern ihiergar, 
nnd somewhat allied to the fairies, reside, like them, in the interior of green 
hills and caverns, and are most powerful at midnight. The}* are curious artifi- 
rers in iron, as well as in the precious metals, and are sometimes propitious to 
mortals, but more frequently capricious and malevolent. Among the common 
people of Zetland, their existence still forms an article of universal belief. In 
Ihe neighbouring isles of Feroe, they are called Foddenskencand, or s)ibtcrra 
nean people; and Inicas Jacobson Debes, well acquainted with their nature, 
ti.-suresus that they inhabit those places which are polluted with the effusion of 
blood, or the practice of any crying sin. They have a government, which 
seems to be monarchical. 


THE PIRATE 


127 


back, and thy skiff had been in the deepest cavern ol 
Brinnastir, where the haaf-Jish^ had before slumbered 
in dark obscurity. Therefore I gave thee that noble 
gift 5 and well thou knowest, that since that day, every 
eye in these isles has looked on thee as a son, or as a 
brother, endowed beyond other youths, and the favoured 
of those whose hour of power is when the night meets 
tvith the day.” 

“ Alas ! mother,” said Mordaunt, “ your kind gift 
may have given me favour, but it has not been able to 
keep it for me, or I have not been able to keep it for my- 
self. — What matters it } I shall learn to set as little by 
others, as they do by me. My father says that I shall 
soon leave these islands, and therefore. Mother Norna, I 
will return to you your fairy gift, that it may bring more 
lasting luck to some other than it has done to me.” 

“ Despise not the gift of the nameless race,” said Nor- 
na, frowning ; then suddenly changing her tone of dis- 
pleasure to that of mournful solemnity, she added, — ■ 
“ Despise them not, but, O Mordaunt, court them not ! 
Sit down on that grey stone — thou art the son of my 
adoption, and I will doff, as far as I may, those attributes 
that sever me from the common mass of humanity, and 
speak with you as a parent with a child.” 

There was a tremulous tone of grief which mingled 
with the loftiness of her language and carriage, and was 
calculated to excite sympathy, as well as to attract atten- 
tion. Mordaunt sat down on the rock which she pointed 
out, a fragment which, with many others that lay scatter- 
ed around, had been torn by some winter storm from the 
precipice at the foot of which it lay, upon the very verge 
of the water. Norna took her own seat on a stone at about 
three feet distance, adjusted her mantle so that little more 
than her forehead, her eyes, and a single lock of her grey 
hair, were seen from beneath the shade of her dark wad- 
tnaal cloak, and then proceeded in a tone in which the im- 

* 'I'he larger seal, or sea-calf, which seeks the most solitary recesses for its 
abode. See l)r. Edinonstone’s Zetland, vol. II. p. 294 


128 


THE PIRATE. 


aginary consequence and importance 50 often assumed by 
lunacy, seemed to contend against the deep workings oi 
some extraordinary and deeply-rooted mental affliction 

“ I was not always,” she said, “ that which I now am. 
I was not always the wise, the powerful, the commanding, 
before whom the young stand abashed, and the old un- 
cover their grey heads. There was a time when my ap- 
pearance did not silence mirth, when I sympathized with 
human passion, and had my own share in human joy or 
sorrow. It was a time of helplessness — it was a time of 
folly — it was a time of idle and unfruitful laughter — it 
was a time of causeless and senseless tears ; — and yet, 
with its follies, and its sorrows, and its weaknesses, what 
would Norna of Fitful-head give to he again the unmark- 
ed and happy maiden that she was in her early days ! 
Hear me, Slordaunt, and bear with me ; for you hear me 
utter complaints which have never sounded in mortal ears, 
and which in mortal ears shall never sound again. I will 
be what I ought,” she continued, starting up and extend- 
ing her lean and withered arm, “ the queen and protec- 
tress of these wild and neglected isles, — I will be her 
whose foot the wave wets not, save by her permission ; 
ay, even though its rage be at its wildest madness — whose 
robe the whirlwind respects, when it rends the house-rig- 
ging from the roof-tree. Bear me witness, Mordaunt 
Mertoun, — you heard my words at Harfra — you saw the 
tempest sink before them — Speak, bear me witness 1” 

To have contradicted her in this strain of high-toned 
enthusiasm, would have been cruel and unavailing, even 
had Mordaunt been more decidedly convinced than he 
was, that an insane woman, not one of supernatural power, 
stood before him. 

“ 1 heard you sing,” he replied, “ and I saw the tem- 
pest abate.” 

“ Abate ?” exclaimed Norna, striking the ground im- 
patiently with her staff of black oak ; “ thou speakest it 
but half — it sunk at once — sunk in shorter space than the 
child that is hushed to silence hy the nurse. — Enough, 
you know my power — but you know not — mortal man 


THE PIRATE. 


.29 


►cnows not, and never shall know, the price which I ptt./d 
to attain it. No, Mordaunt, never for the widest sway 
that the ancient Norsemen iDoasted, when their banners 
waved victorious from Bergen to Palestine — never, for all 
that the round world contains, do thou barter thy peace 
of mind for such greatness as Norna’s.” She resumed 
her seat upon the rock, drew the mantle over her face 
rested her head upon her hands, and by the convulsive 
motion which agitated her bosom, appeared to be weeping 
bitterly. 

“ Good Norna,” said Mordaunt, and paused, scarce 
knowing what to say that might console the unhappy wo- 
man — ‘‘ Good Norna,” he again resumed, “ if there be 
aught in your mind that troubles it, were you not best to 
go to the worthy minister at Dunrossness ? Men say you 
have not for many years been in a Christian congregation 
— that cannot be well, or right. You are yourself well 
known as a healer of bodily disease ; but when the mind 
is sick, we should draw to the Physician of our souls.” 

Norna had raised her person slowly from the stooping 
posture in which she sat ; but at length she started up on 
her feet, threw back her mantle, extended her arm, and 
while her lip foamed, and her eye sparkled, exclaimed in 
V. tone resembling a scream, — “ Me did you speak — me 
Jid you bid seek out a priest ! — ^Would you kill the good 
man with horror ? — Me in a Christian congregation ! — 
Would you have the roof to fall on the sackless assembly, 
and mingle their blood with their worship } I — I seek to 
the good Physician ! — ^Would you have the fiend claim 
his prey openly before God and man ?” 

The extreme agitation of the unhappy speaker naturally 
led Mordaunt to the conclusion, which was generally 
adopted and accredited in that superstitious country and 
period. ‘‘ Wretched woman,” he said, “ if indeed thou 
hast leagued thyself with the Powers of Evil, why should 
you not seek even yet for repentance ? But do as 4hou 
wilt, 1 cannot, dare not, as a Christian, abide longer with 
you ; and take again your gift,” he said, offering back the 


130 


THE PIRATE. 


chain. “ Good can never come of it, if indeed evil hath 
not come already.” 

“ Be still and heir me, thou foolish boy,”' said Norna 
calmly, as if she had been restored to reason by the alarm 
and horror which she perceived in Mordaunt’s counte- 
nance ; “ hear me, I say. I am not of those who have 
leagued themselves with the Enemy of mankind, or de- 
rive skill or power from his ministry. And although tiie 
unearthly powers were propitiated by a sacrifice which 
human tongue can never utter, yet, God knows, my guilt 
in that offering was no more than that of the blind man 
who falls from the precipice which he could neither see 
nor shun. O, leave me not — shun me not in this hour of 
weakness ! Remain with me till the temptation be passed, 
or I will plunge myself into that lake, and rid myself at 
once of my power and my wretchedness !” 

Mordaunt, who had always looked up to this singular 
woman with a sort of affection, occasioned no doubt by 
the early kindness and distinction which she had shown 
to him, was readily induced to reassume his seat, and lis- 
ten to what she had farther to say, in hopes that she woulu 
gradually overcome the violence of her agitation. It was 
not long ere she seemed to have gained the victory her 
companion expected, for she addressed him in her usual 
steady and authoritative manner. 

“ It was not of myself, Mordaunt, that I purposed to 
speak, when I beheld you from the summit of yonder 
grey rock, and came down the path to meet with you. 
My fortunes are fixed beyond change, be it for weal or 
for woe. For myself I have ceased to feel much ; but 
for those whom she loves, Norna of the Fitful-head has 
still those feelings which link her to her kind. Mark me. 
There is an eagle, the noblest that builds in these airy 
precipices, and into that eagle’s nest there has crept an 
adder — wilt thou lend thy aid to crush the reptile, and to 
save the noble brood of the lord of the north sky ?” 

“ You must speak more plainly, Norna,” said Mordaunt, 
‘ if you would have me understand or answer you. j 
am no guesser of riddles.” 


THE PIRATE. 


13J 


' In plain language, then, you know well die family of 
Buigh-Westra — the lovely daughters of the generous old 
Udaller, Magnus Troil, — Minna and Brenda, I mean. 
You know them, and you love them.” 

“ I have known them, mother,” replied Mordaunt, 
“ and I have loved them — none knows it better than 
yourself.” 

“ To know them once,” saidNorna, emphatically, “ is 
to know them always. To love them once, is to love 
them for ever.” 

“ To have loved them once, is to wish them well for 
ever,” replied the youth ; “ but it is nothing more. To 
be plain with you, Norna, the family at Burgh-Westra 
have of late totally neglected me. But show me the 
means of serving them, I will convince you how much I 
have remembered old kindness, how little I resent late 
coldness.” 

‘‘ It is well spoken, and I will put your purpose to the 
proof,” replied Norna. “ Magnus Troil has taken a ser- 
pent into his bosom — his lovely daughters are delivered 
up to the machinations of a villain.” 

“ You mean the stranger, Cleveland ?” said Mordaunt. 

“ The stranger who so calls himself,” replied Norna — 
‘‘ the same whom we found flung ashore, like a waste 
heap of sea-weed, at the foot of the Sumburgh-cape. I 
felt that within me, that would have prompted me to let 
him lie till the tide floated him off, as it had floated him 
on shore. I repent me I gave not way to it.” 

“ But,” said Mordaunt, “ I cannot repent that I did my 
duty as a Christian man. And what right have I to wish 
otherwise ? If Minna, Brenda, Magnus, and the rest, like 
that stranger better than me, I have no title to be offend- 
ed ; nay, I might well be laughed at for bringing mysell 
into comparison.” 

“ It is well, and I trust they merit thy unselfish friend- 
ship.” 

“ But I cannot perceive,” said Mordaunt, “ in what you 
can propose that I should serve them. 1 have but just 
learned by Bryce the Jagger, that this Captain Cleveland 


132 


THE PIRATE. 


IS all in all with the ladies at Burgh-Westra, and with thy 
Udaller himself. I would like ill to intrude myself where 
I am not welcome, or to place my home-bred merit in 
comparison with Captain Cleveland’s. He can tell them 
of battles, when I can only sp3ak of bird’s nests — can 
speak of shooting Frenchmen, when I can only tell of 
shooting seals — he wears gay clothes, and bears a brave 
countenance ; I am plainly dressed, and plainly nurtured. 
Such gay gallants as he can noose the hearts of those he 
lives with, as the fowler nooses the guillemot with his rod 
and line.” 

“ You do wrong to yourself,” replied Norna, wrong 
to yourself, and greater wrong to Minna and Brenda. 
And trust not the reports of Bryce — he is like the greedy 
chalFer-wbale, that will change his course and dive for the 
most petty coin which a fisher can cast at him. Certain 
it is, that if you have been lessened in the opinion ol Mag- 
nus Troil, that sordid fellow hath had some share in it. 
But let him count his vantage, for my eye is upon him. 

“ And why, mother,” said Mordaunt, “ do you not tell 
to Magnus what you have told to me ?” 

“ Because,” replied Norna, they who wax wise in 
their own conceit must be taught a bitter lesson by expe- 
rience. It was but yesterday that I spoke with Magnus, 
and what was his reply ? — ‘ Good Norna, you grow old.’ 
And this was spoken by one bounden to me by so man)» 
and such close ties — by the descendant of the ancient 
Norse earls — this was from Magnus Troil to me ; and it 
was said in behalf of one, whom the .sea flung forth as 
wreck-weed ! Since he despises the counsel of the aged, 
he shall be taught by that of the young ; and well that he 
is not left to his own folly. Go, therefore, to Burgh-Wes- 
tra as usual upon the Baptist’s festival.” 

I have had no invitation,” said Mordaunt ; I am 
not wanted, not wished for, not thought of — perhaps 1 
shall not be acknowledged if I go thither ; and yet, moth 
er, to confess the truth, thither I had thought to go.” 

It was a good thought, and to be cherished,” replied 
Norna ; “ we seek our friends when they are sick in . 


THE PIRATE. 


133 


Iiealth, why njt when they are sick in mind, and surfeited 
with prosperity ? Do not fail to go — it may be, we shall 
meet there. Meanwhile our roado lie different Fare- 
well, and speak not of this meeting.” 

They parted, and Mordaunt remained standing by the 
lake, with his eyes fixed on Norna, until her tall dark form 
became invisible among the windings of the valley down 
which she wandered, and Mordaunt returned to his fath- 
er’s mansion, determined to follow counsel which coincid- 
ed so well with his owe wishes. 


CHAPTER XL 

— — All your ancient customs, 

And long-descended usages, I’ll change.. 

Ye shall not eat, nor drink, nor speak, nor move. 

Think, look, or walk, as ye were wont to do. 

Even your marriage-beds shall know mutation ; 

The bride shall have the stock, the groom the wall j 
For all old practice will I turn and change. 

And call it reformation — marry, will I 

' Tis Even tliai we're at Odds. 


The festal day approached, and still no invitation ar- 
rived for that guest without whom, but a little space since, 
no feast could have been held in the island ; while, on 
the other hand, such reports as reached them on every 
side spoke highly of the favour which Captain Cleveland 
enjoyed in the good graces of the old Udaller of Burgh- 
VVestra. Swertha and the ranzelman shook their heads 
at these mutations, and reminded Mordaunt, by many a 
half-hint and innuendo, that he had incurred this eclipse 
by being so imprudently active to secure the safety of 
tlie stranger, when he lay at the mercy of the next wave 
beneath the cliff's of Sumburgh-head. “ It is best to lot 

VOL. I. 


134 


THE PlllATE. 


saut water take its gate,” said Swertha ; “ luck nevei 
came of crossing it.” 

“ In troth,” said the ranzelman, “ they are wise folks 
that let wave and withy baud their ain — luck never came 
of a half-drowned man, or a half-hanged ane either. Who 
was’t shot Will Paterson off the Noss ? — the Dutchman 
that he saved from sinking, I trow. To fling a drowning 
man a plank or a tow, may be the part of a Christian : 
but I say keep hands aff him, if ye wad live and thrive 
free frae his danger.” 

“ Ye are a wise man, ranzelman, and a worthy,” echo- 
ed Swertha, with a groan, “ and ken how and whan to 
help a neighbour, as weel as ony man that ever drew a 
net.” 

“ In troth, I have seen length of days,” answered the 
ranzelman, “ and I have heard what the auld folk said to 
each other anent sic matters ; and nae man in Zetland 
shall go farther than I will in any Christian service to ^ 
man on firm land ; but if he cry help! out of the sau 
waves, that’s another story.” 

‘‘ And yet, to think of this lad Cleveland standing in 
our Maister Mordaunt’s light,” said Swertha, “ and with 
Magnus Troil, that thought him the flower of the island 
but on Whitsunday last, and Magnus, too, that’s both held 
(when he’s fresh, honest man) the wisest and wealthiest 
of Zetland!” 

“ He canna win by it,” said the ranzelman, with a look 
of the deepest sagacity. “ There’s whiles, Swertha, that 
the wisest of us (as I am sure I humbly confess mysell 
not to be) may be little better than gulls, and can no more 
win by doing deeds of folly than 1 can step over Sum- 
burgh-head. It has been my own case once or twice in 
my life. But wm shall see soon what ill is to come of all 
this, for good there cannot come.” 

And Swertha answered, with the same tone of prophet- 
ic wisdom, ‘‘ Na, na, gude can never come on it, and that 
is ower truly said.” 

These doleful predictions, repeated from time to time, 
Ind some eflbct upon Mordaunt He did not indeed sup- 


THE PIRATE. 


136 


pose, that the charitable action of relieving a drowning 
man had subjected him, as a necessary and fatal conse 
quence, to the unpleasant circumstances in which he was 
placed ; yet he felt as if a sort of spell were drawn around 
him, of which he neither understood the nature nor the 
extent ; — that some power, in short, beyond his own con- 
trol, was acting upon his destiny, and, as it seemed, with 
no friendly influence. His curiosity, as well as his anx- 
iety, was highly excited, and he continued determined, 
at all events, to make his appearance at the approach- 
ing festival, when he was impressed with the belief that 
something uncommon was necessarily to take place, which 
should determine his future views and prospects in life. 

As the elder Mertoun was at this time in his ordinary 
state of health, it became necessary that his son should 
intimate to him his intended visit to Burgh-Westra. He 
did so, and his father desired to know the especial reason 
of his going thither at this particular time. 

“ It is a time of merry-making,’’ replied the youth ; 
“ and all the country are assembled.” 

“ And you are doubtless impatient to add another fool 
to the number. — Go — ^but beware how you walk in the 
path which you are about to tread — a fall from the clifl^s 
of Foula were not more fatal.” 

“ May I ask the reason of your caution, sir ?” replied 
Mordaunt, breaking through the reserve which ordinarily 
subsisted betwixt him and his singular parent 

“ Magnus Troil,” said the elder Mertoun, “ has two 
daughters — ^you are of the age when men look upon such 
gauds with eyes of affection, that they may afterwards 
learn to curse the day that first opened their eyes upon 
heaven ! I bid you beware of them ; for, as sure as that 
death and sin came into the world by woman, so sure 
are their soft words, and softer looks, the utter destruc- 
tion and ruin of all who put faith in them.” 

Mordaunt had sometimes observed his father’s marked 
dislike to the female sex, but had never before heard him 
give vent to it in terms so determined and precise. He 
replied, that the daughters of Magnus Troil were no more 


136 


THE PIRATE. 


to him than any other females in the islands ; they were 
even of less importance,” he said, “ for they had broken 
off their friendship with him, without assigning any cause.’ 

“ And you go to seek the renewal of it ?” answered his 
father. “ Silly moth, that hast once escaped the taper 
without singeing thy wings, are you not contented with the 
safe obscurity of these wilds, but must hasten back to the 
flame, which is sure at length to consume thee ? But why 
should I waste arguments in deterring thee from thy in- 
evitable fate ? — Go where thy destiny calls thee.” 

On the succeeding day, which was the eve of the great 
festival, Mordaunt set forth on his road to Burgh- Westra, 
pondering alternately on the injunctions of Norna — on 
the ominous words of his father — on the inauspicious 
auguries of Swertha and the ranzelman of Jarlshof — and 
not without experiencing that gloom w’ith which so many 
concurring circumstances of ill omen combined to oppress 
his mind. 

“ It bodes me but a cold reception at Burgh-Westra,” 
said he ; “ but my stay shall be the shorter. I will but 
find out whether they have been deceived by this sea- 
faring stranger, or whether they have acted out of pure 
caprice of temper, and love of change of company. II 
the first be the case, I will vindicate my character, and 
let Captain Cleveland look to himself ; — if the latter, why 
then, goodnight to Burgh-Westra and ail its inmates.” 

As he mentally meditated this last alternative, hurt 
pride, and a return of fondness for those to whom he sup- 
posed he was bidding farewell for ever, brought a tear into 
his eye, which he dashed off hastily and indignantly, as, 
mending his pace, he continued on his journey. 

The weather being now serene and undisturbed, Mor- 
daunt made his way with an ease that formed a striking 
contrast to the difficulties which he had encountered when 
he last travelled the same route ; yet there was a less 
pleasing subject for comparison, within his own mind. 

“ My breast,” he said to himself, “ was then against 
the wind, but my heart within was serene and happy. I 
would I had now the same careless feelings, were they to 


THE .PIRATE. 


137 


be bought by battling with the severest storm .*3: at ever 
blew across these lonely hills!” 

With such thoughts, he arrived about noon at Harfra, 
the habitation, as the reader may remember, of the in- 
genious Mr. Yellowley. Our traveller had, upon the pres- 
ent occasion, taken care to be quite independent of the 
niggardly hospitality of this mansion, which was now be- 
come infamous on that account through the whole island, 
by bringing with him, in his small knapsack, such provis- 
ions as might have sufficed for a longer journey. In 
courtesy, however, or rather, perhaps, to get rid of his 
own disquieting thoughts, Mordaunt did not fail to call at 
the mansion, which he found in singular commotion. 
Triptolemus himself, invested wdth a pair of large jack- 
boots, went clattering up and down stairs, screaming out 
questions to his sister and his serving-woman Tronda, 
who replied with shriller and more complicated screeches. 
At length, Mrs. Baby herself made her appearance, her 
venerable person endued with what was then called a Jo- 
seph, an ample garment, which had once been green, but 
now, betwixt stains and patches, had become like the ves- 
ture of the patriarch 'whose name it bore — a garment of 
divers colours. A steeple-crowned bat, the purchase oi 
some long-past moment, in which vanit)' had got the better 
of avarice, with a feather which had stood as much wind 
and rain as if it had been part of a sea-mew’s wing, made 
up her equipment, save that in her hand she held a silver- 
mounted whip of antique fashion. This attire, as well 
as an air of determined bustle in the gait and appearance 
of Mrs. Barbara Yellowley, seemed to bespeak that she 
was prepared to take a journey, and cared not, as the 
saying goes, who knew that such was her determination. 

She was the first that observed Mordaunt on his arri- 
val, and she greeted him with a degree of mingled emo- 
tion. “ Be good to us !” she exclaimed, “ if here is not 
the canty callant that wears yon thing about his neck, and 
diat snapped up our goose as light as if it had teen a sau- 
die-Iavrock 1” The admiration of the gold chain, which 

VOL. I. 


138 


THE PIRATE. 


had formerly made so deep an impression on her mina 
was marked in the first part of her speech, the recollec 
tion of the untimely fate of the smoked goose was com- 
memorated in the second clause. “ I will lay the burden 
of my life,” she instantly added, “ that he is ganging our 
gate.” 

“ I am bound for Burgh-Westra, Mrs. Yellowley,” 
said Mordaunt. 

“ And blithe will we be of your company,” she added 
— “ It’s early day to eat ; but if you liked a barley scone 
and a drink of bland — natheless, it is ill travelling on a 
full stomach, besides quelling your appetite for the feast 
that is biding you this day ; for all sort of prodigality 
there will doubtless be.” 

Mordaunt produced his own stores, and, explaining 
that he did not love to be burdensome to them on this 
second occasion, invited them to partake of the provisions 
he had to ofier. Poor Triptolemus, who seldom saw half 
so good a dinner as his guest’s luncheon, threw himself 
upon the good cheer, like Sancho on the scum of Cama- 
cho’s kettle, and even the lady herself could not resist 
the temptation, though she gave way to it with more mod- 
eration, and with something like a sense of shame. “ She 
had let the fire out,” she said, “ for it was a pity wasting 
fuel in so cold a country, and so she had not thought of 
getting any thing ready, as they were to set out so soon ; 
and so she could not but say, that the young gentleman’s 
nacket looked very good ; and besides she had some cu- 
riosity to see whether the folks in that country cured their 
beef in the same way they did in the north of Scotland.” 
Under which combined considerations. Dame Baby made 
a hearty experiment on the refreshments which thus un- 
expectedly presented themselves. 

When their extemporary repast was finished, the factor 
became solicitous to take the road ; and now Mordaunt 
discovered, that the alacrity with which he had been re 
ceived by Mistress Baby was not altogether disinterested. 
Neither she nor the learned Triptolemus felt much dis 
posed to commit themselves to the wilds of Zetland, with 


THE PIRATE. 


1^9 


out the assistance of a guide ; and although they could 
have commanded the aid of one of their own labour- 
ing folks, yet the cautious agriculturist observed, thai 
it would be losing at least one day’s work ; and his sister 
multiplied his apprehensions by echoing back, “ One day’s 
work ? — ^ye may weel say twenty — for, set ane of theii 
noses within the smell of a kail-pot, and their lugs within 
the sound of a fiddle, and whistle them back if ye can!” 

Now the fortunate arrival of Mordaunt, in the very nick 
of time, not to mention the good cheer which he brought 
with him, made him as welcome as any one could possi- 
bly be, to a threshold which on all ordinary occasions 
abhorred the passage of a guest ; nor was Mr. Yellowley 
altogether insensible of the pleasure he promised himself 
in detailing his plans of improvement to his young com- 
panion, and enjoying what his fate seldom assigned him 
— the company of a patient and admiring listener. 

As the factor and his sister were to prosecute their jour- 
ney on horseback, it only remained to mount their guide 
and companion ; a tiling easily accomplished, where there 
are such numbers of shaggy, long-backed, short-legged 
ponies running wild upon the extensive moors, which are 
the common pasturage for the cattle of every township, 
where shelties, geese, swine, goats, sheep, and little Zet- 
land cows, are turned out promiscuously, and often in 
numbers which can obtain but precarious subsistence from 
the niggard vegetation. There is, indeed, a right of in- 
dividual property in all these animals, which are branded 
or tattooed by each owner with his own peculiar mark ; 
but when any passenger has occasional use for a pony, he 
never scruples to lay hold of the first which he can catch, 
puts on a halter, and, having rode him as far as he finds 
convenient, turns the animal loose to find his way back 
again as he best can — a matter in which the ponies are 
sufficiently sagacious. 

Although this general exercise of property was one oi 
the enormities which in due time the factor intended to 
abolish, yet, like a wise man, he scrupled not, in the 
meantime, to avail himself of so general a practice, which. 

7 


140 


THE PIRATE. 


he condescended to allow, was particularly cyjnveu oAit for 
those who, (as chanced to be his own present case,) had 
no ponies of their own on which their neighbours could 
retaliate. Three shelties, therefore, were procured from 
the hill — little shagged animals, more resembling wild 
bears than any thing of the horse tribe, yet possessed of 
no small degree of strength and spirit, and able to endure 
as much fatigue and indifferent usage as any creatures in 
the world. 

Two of these horses were already provided and fully 
accoutred for the journey. One of them destined to 
bear the fair person of Mistress Baby, was decorated with 
a huge side-saddle of venerable antiquity — a mass, as it 
were, of cushion and padding, from which depended, on 
all sides, a housing of ancient tapestry, which, having 
been originally intended for a horse of ordinary size, cov- 
ered up the diminutive palfrey over which it was spread, 
from the ears to the tail, and from the shoulder to the fet- 
lock, leaving nothing visible but its head, which looked 
fiercely out from these enfoldments, like the heraldric 
representation of a lion looking out of a bush. Mordaunt 
gallantly lifted up the fair Mistress Yellowley, and, at the 
expense of very slight exertion, placed her upon the sum- 
mit of her mountainous saddle. It it probable, that, on 
feeling herself thus squired and attended upon, and ex- 
periencing the long unwonted consciousness that she was 
attired in her best array, some thoughts dawned upon 
Mistress Baby’s mind, which chequered, for an instant, 
those habitual ideas about thrift, that formed the daily and 
all-engrossing occupation of her soul. She glanced her 
eye upon her faded Joseph, and on the long housings of 
her saddle, as she observed, with a smile, to Mordaunt, 
that “ travelling was a pleasant thing in fine weather and 
agreeable company, if,” she added, glancing a look at a 
place where the embroidery was somewhat frayed and 
tattered, “ it was not sae wasteful to ane’s horse-furniture.” 

Meanwhile, her brother stepped stoutly to his steed , 
and as he chose, notwithstanding the serenity of the 
t\"eather, to throw a long red cloak over his other gar- 


THE PIRATE. 


141 


merits, his pony was even more completely enveloped in 
drapery than that of his sister. 

It happened, moreover, to be an animal of an high and 
contumacious spirit, bouncing and curveting occasionally 
under the weight of Triptolemus, with a vivacity which, 
notwithstanding his Yorkshire descent, rather deranged 
him in the saddle ; — gambols which, as the palfrey itself 
was not visible, except upon the strictest inspection, had, 
at a little distance, an effect as if they were the voluntary 
movements of the cloaked cavalier, without the assistance 
of any other legs than those with which nature had pro- 
vided him ; and, to any who had viewed Triptolemus un- 
der such a per-suasion, the gravity, and even distress, 
announced in his countenance, must have made a ridicu- 
lous contrast to the vivacious caprioles with which he 
piaffed along the moor. 

Mordaunt kept up with this worthy couple, mounted, 
according to the simplicity of the time and country, on 
the first and readiest pony which they had been able to 
press into the service, with no other accoutrement of any 
kind than the halter which served to guide him ; while 
Mr. Yellowley, seeing with pleasure his guide thus readily 
provided with a steed, privately resolved, that this rude 
custom of helping travellers to horses, without leave ol 
the proprietor, should not be abated in Zetland, until he 
came to possess a herd of ponies belonging in property to 
himself, and exposed to suffer in the way of retaliation. 

But to other uses or abuses of the country, Triptole- 
mus Yellowley showed himself less tolerant. Long and 
wearisome were the discourses he held with Mordaunt, 
or, (to speak much more correctly,) the harangues which 
he inflicted upon him, concerning the changes which his 
own advent in these isles was about to occasion. Un- 
skilled as he was in the modern arts by which an estate 
may be improved to such a high degree that it shall alto- 
gether slip through the proprietor’s fingers, Triptolemus 
had at least the zeal, if not the knowledge, of a whole 
agricultural society in his own person ; nor was he sur- 
passed by any who has followed him, in that noble spirit 


142 


THE PIRATE. 


which scorns to balance profit against outlay, but holds 
the glory of effecting a great change on the face of the 
land, to be, like virtue, in a great degree its own reward. 

No part of the wild and mountainous region over which 
Mordaunt guided him, but what suggested to his active 
imagination some scheme of improvement and alteration. 
He would make a road through yon scarce passable glen, 
where at present nothing but the sure-footed creatures on 
which they were mounted could tread with any safet)' . 
He would substitute better houses for the skeoes, or sheds 
built of dry stones, in which the inhabitants cured or man- 
ufactured their fish — they should brew good ale instead 
of bland — they should plant forests where tree never 
grew, and find mines of treasure where a Danish skilling 
was accounted a coin of a most respectable denomina- 
tion. All these mutations, with many others, did the 
worthy factor resolve upon, speaking at the same time 
with the utmost confidence of the countenance and assist- 
ance which he was to receive from the higher classes, and 
especially from Magnus Troil. 

“ I will impart some of my ideas to the poor man,” he 
said, “ before we are both many hours older ; and you 
will mark how grateful he will be to the instructer who 
brings him knowledge, which is better than wealth.” 

“ I would not have you build too strongly on that,” said 
Mordaunt, by way of caution ; “ Magnus Troil’s boat is 
kittle to trim — he likes his own ways, and his country- 
ways, and you will as soon teach your shelty to dive like 
a sealgh, as bring Magnus to take a Scottish fashion in 
the place of a Norse one ; and yet, if he is steady to his 
old customs, he may perhaps be as changeable as another 
in his old friendships.” 

“ Heus, iu inepte /” said the scholar of St. Andrews, 
“ steady or unsteady, what can it matter ? — am not I here 
m point of trust, and in point of power ? and shall a 
fowd, by which barbarous appellative this Magnus Troil 
still calls himself, presume to measure judgment and weigh 
reasons with me, who represent the full dignity of the 
Chamberlain of the islands of Orkney and Zetland 


THE PIRATE. 


143 


'' Stil.,” said Mordaunt, “ I would advise you not vo 
advance too rashly upon his prejudices. Magnus Troil, 
from the hour of his birth to this day, never saw a greater 
man than himself, and it is difficult to bridle an old horse 
for the first time. Besides, he has at no time in his life 
been a patient listener to long explanations, so it is possi- 
ble that he may quarrel with your proposed reformation, 
before you can convince him of its advantages.” 

“ How mean you, young man ?” said the factor. “ Is 
there one who dwells in these islands, who is so wretch- 
edly blind as not to be sensible of their deplorable defects ? 
Can a man,” he added, rising into enthusiasm as he spoke, 
“ or even a beast, look at that thing there, which they 
have the impudence to call a corn-mill?^ without trem- 
bling to think that corn should be entrusted to such a 
miserable molendinary ? The wretches are obliged to 
have at least fifty in each parish, each trundling away up- 
on its paltry mill-stone, under the thatch of a roof no 
bigger than a bee-skep, instead of a noble and seemly 
baron^s mill, of which you would hear the clack through 
the haill country, and that casts the meal through the 
mill-eye by forpits at a time !” 

“ Ay, ay, brother,” said his sister, “ that’s spoken like 
your wise sell. They mair cost the mair honour — that’s 
your word ever mair. Can it no creep into your wise head, 
man, that ilka body grinds their ain nievefu’ of meal in 
this country, without plaguing themsells about barons’ mills, 
and thirls, and sucken, and the like trade ? How mony a 
time have 1 heard you bell-the-cat with auld Edie Neth- 
erstane, the miller at Grindleburn, and wi’ his very knave 
too, about in-town and out-town multures — lock, gowpen, 
and knaveship, and a’ the lave o’t ; and now naething less 
will serve you than to bring in the very same fashery on 
a wheen puir bodies, that big ilk ane a mill for themselves, 
sic as it is?” 

“ Dinna tell me of gowpen and knaveship !” exclaim- 
ed the indignant agriculturist ; “ better pay the half of the 
grist to the miller, to have the rest grund in a Christian 
manner, than put good grain into a bairn’s whirligig. Ijook 


144 


THE PIRATE. 


at it for a moment, Baby — Bide still, ye cursed imp !’ 
This interjection was applied to his pony, which began to 
be extremely impati'Cnt, while its rider interrupted his 
journey, to point out all the weak points of the Zetland 
mill — ‘‘ look at it, I say, — it’s just one degree better than 
a hand-quern — it has neither wheel nor trindle — neither 
cog nor happer — Bide still, there’s a canny beast — it can- 
na grind a bickerfu’ of meal in a quarter of an hour, and 
that will be mair like a mash for horse than a meltith for 
man’s use — Wherefore — Bide still, I say — wherefore — 
wherefore — The deil’s in the beast, and nae good, I 
think !” 

As he uttered the last words, the shelty, which had 
pranced and curveted for some time with much impa- 
tience, at length got its head betwixt its legs, and at once 
canted its rider into the little rivulet, which served to drive 
the depreciated engine he was surveying ; then emanci- 
pating itself from the folds of the cloak, fled back towards 
its own wilderness, neighing in scorn, and flinging out its 
heels at every five yards. 

Laughing heartily at his disaster, Mordaunt helped the 
old man to arise ; while his sister sarcastically congratu- 
lated him on having fallen rather into the shallows of a 
Zetland rivulet than the depths of a Scottish mill-pond. 
Disdaining to reply to this sarcasm, Triptolemus, so soon 
as he had recovered his legs, shaken his ears, and found 
that the folds of his cloak had saved him from being much 
wet in the scanty streamlet, exclaimed aloud, “ I will 
have cussers from Lanarkshire — brood mares from Ayr- 
shire — I will not have one of these cursed abortions left 
on the islands, to break honest folk’s necks — I say. Baby, 
I will rid the land of them.” 

“Ye had better wring your ain cloak, Triptolemus.” 
answered Baby. 

Mordaunt meanwhile was employed in catching another 
pony, from a herd which strayed at some distance ; and, 
having made a halter out of twisted rushes, he seated the 
. dismayed agriculturist in safety upon a more quiet, though 
less active steed than that which he had at first bestrode. 


THE PIRATE. 


145 


But Mr. Yellowley’s fall had operated as a considera- 
ble sedative upon his spirits, and, for the full space of five 
miles’ travel, he said scarce a word, leaving full course to 
the melancholy aspirations and lamentations which his 
sister Baby bestowed on the old bridle, which the pony 
had carried off in its flight, and which, she observed, after 
having lasted for eighteen years come Martinmas, might 
now be considered as a cast-away thing. Finding she 
had thus the field to herself, the old lady launched forth 
into a lecture upon economy, according to her own idea 
of that virtue, which seemed to include a system of pri- 
vations, which, though observed with the sole purpose of 
saving money, might, if undertaken upon other principles, 
have ranked high in the history of a religious ascetic. 

She was but little interrupted by Mordaunt, who, con- 
scious he was now on the eve of approaching Burgh- Wes- 
tra, employed himself rather in the task of anticipating the 
nature of the reception he was about to meet with there 
from two beautiful young women, than with the prosing of 
an old one, however wisely she might prove that small- 
beer was more wholesome than strong ale, and that if her 
brother had bruised his ankle bone in his tumble, cumfrey 
and butter was better to bring him round again, than all 
the doctor’s drugs in the world. 

But now the dreary moorlands, over which their path 
had hitherto lain, were exchanged for a more pleasant 
prospect, opening on a salt-water lake, or arm of the sea, 
which ran up far inland, and was surrounded by flat and 
fertile ground, producing crops ^ better than the experi- 
enced eye of Triptolemus Yellowley had as yet witnessed 
in Zetland. In the midst of this Goshen stood the man- 
sion of Burgh- Westra, screened from the north and east 
by a ridge of heathy hills which lay behind it, and com- 
manding an interesting prospect of the lake and its parent 
ocean, as well as the islands, and more distant mountains. 
From the mansion itself, as well as from almost every 
cottage in the adjacent hamlet, arose such a rich cloud of 
vapoury smoke, as showed, that the preparations for the 

VOL. I. 


146 


THE PIRATE. 


festival were not confined to the principal residence o' 
Magnus himself, but extended through the whole vicinage. 

“ My certie,” said Mrs. Baby Yellowley, “ ane wad 
think the haill town was on fire ! The very hill-side 
smells of their wastefulness, and a hungry heart wad 
scarce seek better kitchen^^ to a barley scone, than just 
to waft it in the reek that’s rising out of yon lums.” 


CHAPTER XII. 


^I’hou hast described 

A hot friend cooling. Ever note, Lucilius, 

When love begins to sicken and decay, 

It useth an enforced ceremony. 

There are no tricks in plain and simple faith. 

Julius Cccsdr. 

If the smell which was wafted from the chimneys ol 
Burgh-Westra up to the barren hills by which the mansion 
was surrounded, could, as Mistress Barbara opined, have 
refreshed the hungry, the noise which proceeded from 
thence might have given hearing to the deaf. It was a 
medley of all sounds, and all connected with jollity and 
kind welcome. Nor were the sights associated with them 
less animating. 

Troops of friends were seen in the act of arriving — 
their dispersed ponies flying to the moors in every direc- 
tion, to recover their own pastures in the best way they 
could ; — such, as we have already said, being the usud 
mode of discharging the cavalry which had been levied 
for a day’s service. At a small but commodious harbour, 
connected with the house and hamlet, those visiters were 
landing from their boats, who, living in distant islands, and 
along the coast, had preferred making their journey by 
sea. Mordaunt and his companions might see each party 
pausing frequently to greet each other, and strolling on 


THE PIRATE. 


147 


successively to the house, whose ever open gate received 
them alternately in such numbers, that it seemed the ex- 
tent of the mansion, though suited to the opulence and 
hospitality of the owner, was scarce, on this occasion, 
sufficient for the guests. 

Among the confused sounds of mirth and welcome 
which arose at the entrance of each new company, Mor- 
daunt thought he could distinguish the loud laugh and 
hearty salutation of the Sire of the mansion, and began 
to feel more deeply than before, the anxious doubt, wheth- 
er that cordial reception, which was distributed so freely 
to all others, would be on this occasion extended to him. 
As they came on, they heard the voluntary scrapings and 
bravura effusions of the gallant fiddlers, who impatiently 
flung already from their bows those sounds with which 
they were to animate the evening. The clamour of the 
cook’s assistants, and the loud scolding tones of the cook 
himself, were also to be heard — sounds of dissonance at 
any other time, but which, subdued with others, and by 
certain happy associations, form no disagreeable part of 
the full chorus which always precedes a rural feast. 

Meanwhile, the guests advanced, each full of their own 
thoughts. Mordaunt’s we have already noticed. Baby 
was wrapt up in the melancholy grief and surprise excited 
by the positive conviction, that so much victuals had been 
cooked at once as were necessary to feed all the mouths 
which were clamouring around her — an enormity of ex- 
pense, which, though she was no way concerned in bear- 
ing it, affected her nerves, as the beholding a massacre 
would touch those of the most indifferent spectator, how- 
ever well assured of his own personal safety. She sick- 
ened, in short, at the sight of so much extravagance, like 
Abyssinian Bruce, when he saw the luckless minstrels oi 
Gondar hacked to pieces by the order of Ras Michael 
As for her brother, they being now arrived where the 
rude and antique instruments of Zetland agriculture lay 
scattered in the usual confusion of a Scottish barn-yard, 
his thoughts were at once engrossed in the deficiencies ol 
tile one-stilted plough — of the twiscar, with which they 


148 


THE PIUATE. 


dig peats — of the sledges, on which they transport com- 
modities — of all and every thing, in short, in which the 
usages of the islands differed from those of the mainland 
of Scotland. The sight of these imperfect instruments 
stirred the blood of Triptolemus Yeilowley, as that of the 
bold warrior rises at seeing the arms and insignia of the 
enemy he is about to combat ; and, faithful to his high 
emprize, he thought less of the hunger Which his journey 
had occasioned, although about to be satisfied by such a 
dinner as rarely fell to his lot, than upon the task which 
he had undertaken, of civilizing the manners, and im- 
proving the cultivation of Zetland. 

“ Jacta est aleaj^^ he muttered to himself ; “ this very 
day shall prove whether the Zetlanders are worthy of our 
labours, or whether their minds are as incapable of culti- 
vation as their peat-mosses. Yet let us be cautious, and 
watch the soft time of speech. I feel, by my own expe- 
rience, that it were best to let the body, in its present state, 
take the place of the mind. A mouthful of that same 
roast-beef, which smells so delicately, will form an apt 
introduction to my grand plan for improving the breed of 
stock.” 

By this time the visiters had reached the low but am- 
ple front of Magnus Troll’s residence, which seemed of 
various dates, with large and ill-imagined additions, hasti- 
ly adapted to the original building, as the increasing estate, 
or enlarged family, of successive proprietors, appeared 
to each to demand. Beneath a low, broad, and large 
porch, supported by two huge carved posts, once the 
head-ornaments of vessels which had found shipwreck 
upon the coast, stood Magnus himself, intent on the hos- 
pitable toil of receiving and welcoming the numerous 
guests who successively approached. His strong portly 
figure was well adapted to the dress which he woie — 
a blue coat of an antique cut, lined with scarlet, and 
laced and looped with gold down the seams and button- 
holes, and along the ample cuffs. Strong and masculine 
features, rendered ruddy and brown by frequent expo- 
sure m severe weather — a quantity of most venerable 


THE PIRATE. 


149 


silver ha’r, which fell in unshorn profusion from under his 
gold-laced hat, and was carelessly tied with a ribbon be 
hind, expressed at once his advanced age, his hasty, yet 
well-conditioned temper, and his robust constitution. As 
our travellers approached him, a shade of displeasure 
seemed to cross his brow, and to interrupt for an instant 
the honest and hearty burst of hilarity with which he bad 
been in the act of greeting all prior arrivals. When he 
approached Triptolemus Yellowley, be drew himself up, 
so as to mix, as it were, some share of the stately impor- 
tance of the opulent Udaller with tlie welcome afforded 
by the frank and hospitable landlord. 

“ You are welcome, Mr. Yellowley,” was his address 
to the factor ; “ you are welcome to Westra — the wind 
has blown you on a rough coast, and we that are the na- 
tives must be kind to you as we can. This, I believe, is 
your sister — Mistress Barbara Yellowley, permit me the 
honour of a neighbourly salute.” — And so saying, with a 
daring and self-devoted courtesy, which would find no 
equal in our degenerate days, he actually ventured to 
salute the withered cheek of the spinster, who relaxed 
so much of her usual peevishness of expression, as to 
receive the courtesy with something which approached 
to a smile. He then looked full at Mordaunt Mertoun, 
and, without offering his hand, said, in a tone somewhat 
broken by suppressed agitation, “ You too are welcome. 
Master Mordaunt.” 

“ Did I not think so,” said Mordaunt, naturally offend- 
ed by the coldness of his host’s manner, “ I had not 
been here — and it is not yet too late to turn back.” 

‘‘ Young man,” replied Magnus, “ you know better 
than ]nost, that from these doors no man can turn, with- 
out an offence to their owner. I pray you, disturb not my 
guests by your ill-timed scruples. When Magnus Troil 
says welcome, all are welcome who are within hearing of 
his voice, and it is an indifferent loud one. — Walk on, my 
worthy gue^ s, and let us see what cheer my lasses can 
make you within doors.” 

VOL. I. 


150 


THE PIRATE. 


So saying, and taking care to make his manner so gen- 
eral to the whole party, that Mordaunt should not be able 
to appropriate any particular portion of the welcome to 
himself, nor yet to complain of being excluded from all 
share in it, the Udaller ushered the guests into his house, 
where two large outer-rooms, which, on the present occa- 
sion, served the purpose of a modern saloon, were al- 
ready crowded with guests of every description. 

The furniture was sufficiently simple, and had a char- 
acter peculiar to the situation of those stormy islands. 
Magnus Troil was, indeed, like most of the higher class 
of Zetland proprietors, a friend to the distressed traveller, 
whether by sea or land, and had repeatedly exerted his 
whole authority in protecting the properly and persons of 
shipwrecked mariners ; yet so frequent were wrecks upon 
that tremendous coast, and so many unappropriated arti- 
cles were constantly flung ashore, that the interior of the 
house bore sufficient witness to the ravages of the ocean, 
and to the exercise of those rights which the lawyers 
term Flotsome and Jetsome. The chairs, which were 
arranged around the walls, were such as are used in 
cabins, and many of them were of foreign construction ; 
the mirrors and cabinets, which were placed against the 
walls for ornament or convenience, had, it was plain froni 
their form, been constructed for ship-board, and one or 
two of the latter were of strange and unknown wood. 
Even the partition which separated the two apartments, 
seemed constructed out of the bulk-head of some large 
vessel, clumsily adapted to the service which it at present 
performed, by the labour of some native, joiner. To a 
stranger, these evident marks and tokens of human mis- 
ery might, at the first glance, form a contrast with the 
scene of mirth with which they were now associated ; 
but the association was so familiar to the natives, that it 
did not for a moment interrupt the course of their glee. 

To the younger part of these revellers, the presence of 
Mordaunt was like a fresh charm of enjoyment. All 
came around him to marvel at his absence, and all, by 
their repeated inquiries, plainly showed that they con 


THE PIRATE. 


151 


ceived it had been entirely voluntary a.: his side. The 
youth felt that this general acceptation relieved his anxiety 
on one painful point. Whatever prejudice the family of 
Burgh-Westra might have adopted respecting him, ii 
must be of a private nature ; and at least he had not the 
additional pain of finding that he was depreciated in the 
eyes of society at large ; and his vindication, when he 
found opportunity to make one, would not require to be 
extended beyond the circle of a single family. This was 
consoling ; though his heart still throbbed with anxiety at 
the thought of meeting with his estranged, but still belov- 
ed friends. Laying the excuse of his absence on his 
father’s state of health, he made his way through the 
various groups of friends and guests, each of whom seem- 
ed willing to detain him as long as possible, and having 
by presenting them to one or two families of consequence, 
got rid of his travelling companions, who at first stuck 
fast as burs, he reached at length the door of a small 
apartment, which, opening from one of the larger exterior 
rooms we have mentioned, Minna and Brenda had been 
permitted to fit up after their own taste, and to call their 
peculiar property. 

Mordaunt had contributed no small share of the inven- 
tion and mechanical execution employed in fitting up this 
favourite apartment, and in disposing its ornaments. It 
was, indeed, during his last residence at Burgh-Westra 
as free to his entrance and occupation, as to its proper 
mistresses. But now, so much were times altered, that 
he remained with his finger on the latch, uncertain wheth- 
er he should take the freedom to draw it, until Brenda’s-, 
voice pronounced the words, “ Come in then,” in the 
tone of one who is interrupted by an unwelcome disturb- 
er, who is to he heard and despatched with all the speed 
possible. 

At this signal, Mertoun entered the fanciful cabinet ol 
the sisters, which, by the addition of many ornaments, 
including some articles of considerable value, had been 
fitted up for the approaching festival. The daughters ot 
Magnus, at the moment of Mordaunt’s entrance, were 


152 


THE PIRATE. 


seated in deep consultation with the stranger Cleveland 
and with a little slight-made old man, whose eye retained 
all the vivacity of spirit, which had supported him under 
the thousand vicissitudes of a changeful and precarious 
life, and which, accompanying him in his old age, render- 
ed his grey hairs less awfully reverend perhaps, but not 
less beloved, than would a more grave and less imagina- 
tive expression of countenance and character. There 
was even a penetrating shrewdness mingled in the look of 
curiosity, with which, as he stepped for an instant aside, 
he seemed to watch the meeting of Mordaunt with the 
two lovely sisters. 

The reception the youth met with resembled, in gen- 
eral character, that which he had experienced from Mag- 
nus himself ; but the maidens could not so well cover their 
sense of the change of circumstances under which they 
met. Both blushed, as rising, and without extending the 
hand, far less offering the cheek, as the fashion of the 
times permitted, and almost exacted, they paid to Mor- 
daunt the salutation due to an ordinary acquaintance. 
But the blush of the elder was one of those transient 
evidences of flitting emotion, that vanish as fast as the 
passing thought which excites them. In an instant she 
stood before the youth calm and cold, returning, with 
guarded and cautious courtesy, the usual civilities, which, 
with a faltering voice, Mordaunt endeavoured to present 
to her. The emotion of Brenda bore, externally at least, 
a deeper and more agitating character. Her blush ex- 
tended over every part of her beautiful skin which hei 
dress permitted to be visible, including her slender neck, 
and the upper region of a finely formed bosom. Neither 
did she even attempt to reply to what share of his con- 
fused compliment Mordaunt addressed to her in particu- 
lar, but regarded him with eyes, in which displeasure was 
evidently mingled with feelings of regret, and recollec- 
tions of former times. Mordaunt felt, as it were, assured 
upon the instant, that the regard of Minna was extin- 
guished, but that it might be yet possible to recover that 
of the milder Brenda ; and such is the waywardness of 


THE PIRATE. 


1 5b 

niiman fancy, that though he had never hitherto made any 
distinct difference betwixt these two beautiful and inter- 
esting girls, the favour of her, which seemed most abso- 
lutely withdrawn, became at the moment the most inter- 
esting in his eyes. 

He was disturbed in these hasty reflections by Cleve- 
land, who advanced, with military frankness, to pay his 
compliments to his preserver, having only delayed long 
enough to permit the exchange of the ordinary salutation 
betwixt the visiter and the ladies of the family. He 
made his approach with so good a grace, that it was im- 
possible for Mordaunt, although he dated his loss of fa- 
vour at Burgh-Westra from this stranger’s appearance on 
the coast, and domestication in the family, to do less 
than return his advances as courtesy demanded, accept 
his thanks with an appearance of satisfaction, and hope 
that his time had passed pleasantly since their last meet- 
ing. 

Cleveland was about to answer, when he was anticipat- 
ed by the little old man, formerly noticed, who now thrust- 
ing himself forward, and seizing Mordaunt’s hand, kissed 
him on the forehead ; and then at the same time echoed 
and answered his question — “ How passes time at Burgh- 
Westra? Was it you that asked it, my prince of the cliff 
and of the scaur ? How should it pass, but with all the 
wings that beauty and joy can add to help its flight !” 

‘‘ And wit and song too, my good old friend,” said 
Mordaunt, half-serious, half-jesting, as he shook the old 
man cordially by the hand. — “ These cannot be wanting, 
where Claud Halcro comes !” 

“ Jeer me not, Mordaunt, my good lad,” replied the 
old man ; “ When your foot is as slow as mine, your wit 
frozen, and your song out of tune ” 

“ How can you belie yourself, my good master ?” an- 
swered Mordaunt, who was not unwilling to avail himself 
af his old friend’s peculiarities to introduce something like 
conversation, break the awkwardness of this singular 
meeting, and gain time for observation, ere requiring an 
explanation of the change of conduct which the family 


164 


THE PIRATE. 


seemed to have adopted towards him. “ Say not s.v 
he continued. “ Time, my old friend, lays his hand 
lightly on the bard. Have I not heard you say, the poet 
partakes the immortality of his song ? and surely the great 
English poet, you used to tell us of, was elder than your- 
self when he pulled the bow-oar among all the wits of 
London.” 

This alluded to a story which was, as the French term 
it, Halcro’s cheval de baitaille, and any allusion to which 
was certain at once to place him in the saddle, and to 
push his hobby-horse into full career. 

His laughing eye kindled with a sort of enthusiasm, 
which the ordinary folk of this world might have called 
crazed, while he dashed into the subject which he best lov- 
ed to talk upon. ‘‘ Alas, alas ! my dear MordauntMertoun 
— silver is silver, and waxes not dim by use, and pewter 
is pewter, and grows the longer the duller. It is not for 
poor Claud Halcro to name himself in the same twelve- 
month with the immortal John Dryden. True it is, as 1 
may have told you before, that I have seen that great 
man, nay, I have been in the Wits’ Coffee-house, as it 
was then called, and had once a pinch out of his own 
very snuff-box. I must have told you all how it happen- 
ed, but here is Captain Cleveland who never heard it. — 
I lodged, you must know, in Russel-street — I question 
not but you know Russel-street, Covent-Garden, Captain 
Cleveland ?” 

“ I should knew its latitude pretty well, Mr. Halcro,” 
said the Captain, smiling ; “ but I believe you mention- 
ed the circumstance yesterday, and besides we have the 
day’s duty in hand — you must play us this song which 
we are to study.” 

“ It will not serve the turn now,” said Halcro, “ we 
must think of something^that will take in our dear Mor- 
el aunt, the first voice in the island, whether for a part or 
solo. I will never be he will touch a string to you, unless 
Mordaunt Mertoun is to help us out. — What say you, my 
fairest Night } — what think you, my sweet Dawn of Day?”* 
ne added, addressing the young women, upon whom, as 


THE PIRATE. 


155 


we have said elsewhere, he had long before bestowed 
these allegorical names. 

‘ Mr. Mordaunt Mertoun,” said Minna, “ has come 
too late to be of our band on this occasion — It is our mis- 
fortune, but it cannot be helped.” 

“ How ? what ?” said Halcro, hastily — “ too late — and 
you have practised together all your lives? — take my 
word, ray bonny lasses, that old tunes are sweetest, and 
old friends surest. Mr. Cleveland has a fine bass, that 
must be allowed ; but I would have you trust for the first 
effect to one of the twenty fine airs you can sing where 
Mordaunt’s tenor joins so well with your own witchery — 
here is my lovely Day approves of the change in her 
heart.” 

“ You were never in your life more mistaken, father 
Halcro,” said Brenda, her cheeks again reddening, more 
with displeasure, it seemed, than with shame. 

“ Nay, but how is this ?” said the old man, pausing, 
and looking at them alternately. “ What have we got 
here ? — a cloudy night and a red morning ? — that be- 
tokens rough weather. — ^What means all this, young wo 
men ? — where lies the offence ? — In me, I fear ; for the 
blame is always laid upon the oldest when young folk 
like you go by the ears.” 

‘‘ The blame is not with you, father Halcro,” said 
Minna, rising, and taking her sister by the arm, “ if indeed 
there be blame any where.” 

“ I should fear then, Minna,” said Mordaunt, endeav- 
ouring to soften his tone into one of indifferent pleasant- 
ry, “ that the new comer has brought the offence along 
with him.” 

“ When no offence is taken,” replied Minna, witxi 
her usual gravity, “ it matters not by whom such may 
have been offered.” 

“ Is it possible, Minna !” exclaimed Mordaunt ; “ and 
is it you who speak thus to me ? — And you, too, Brenda 
can you too judge so hardly of me, yet without permit- 
ting me one moment of honest and frank explanation ?” 


156 


THK PIRATE. 


Those who should know best,” ansA^ered Brenda, 
in a low but decisive tone of voice, “ have told us their 
pleasure, and it must be done. — Sister, I think we have 
staid too long here, and shall be wanted elsewhere — Mr. 
Mertoun will excuse us on so busy a day.” 

The sisters linked their arms together. Halcro m vain 
endeavoured to stop them, making, at the same time, a 
theatrical gesture, and exclaiming, 

Now, Day and Night, but this is wondrous strange !" 

Then turned to Mordaunt Mertoun, and added, “ The 
girls are possessed with the spirit of mutability, showing, 
as our master Spenser well saith, that 

‘ Among all living creatures, mure or lesse, 

Change still doth reign, and keep the greater sway.’ 

Captain Cleveland,” he continued, “ know you anything 
that has happened to put these two juvenile graces out 
of tune ?” 

He will lose his reckoning,” answered Cleveland 
that spends time in inquiring why the wind shifts a point 
or why a woman changes her mind. Were I Mr. Mor- 
daunt, I would not ask the proud wenches another ques- 
tion on such a subject.” 

“ It is a friendly advice. Captain Cleveland,” replied 
Mordaunt, “ and I will not hold it the less so that it has 
been given unasked. Allow me to inquire if you are 
yourself as indifferent to the opinion of your female friends, 
as it seems you would have me to be ?” 

Who, 1 ?” said the Captain, with an air of frank in- 
difference, “ I never thought twice upon such a subject. 
I never saw a woman worth thinking twice about after 
the anchor was a-peak — on shore it is another thing* 
and I will laugh, sing, dance, and make love, if they like 
it, with twenty girls, were they but lialf so pretty as those 
who have left us, and make them heartily welcome to 
change their course in the sound of a boatswain’s whistle 
It will be odds but I wear as fast as they can.” 


THE PIRATE 


157 


A patient is seldom pleased with that sort f consola- 
tion which is founded on holding light the malady of which 
he complains ; and Mordaunt felt disposed to be offended 
with Captain Cleveland, both for taking notice of his em- 
barrassment, and intruding upon him his own opinion ; 
and he replied, therefore, somewhat sharply, “ that Cap- 
tain Cleveland’s sentiments were only suited to such 
as had the art to become universal favourites wherever 
chance happened to throw them, and who could not lose 
in one place more than their merit was sure to gain for 
them in another.” 

This was spoken ironically ; but there was, to confess 
the truth, a superior knowledge of the world, and a con- 
sciousness of external merit at least, about the man, which 
rendered his interference doubly disagreeable. As Sir 
Lucius O’Trigger says, there was an air of success about 
Captain Cleveland, which was mighty provoking. Young, 
Handsome, and well assured, his air of nautical bluntness 
sat naturally and easily upon him, and was perhaps par- 
ticularly well fitted to the simple manners of the remote 
country in which he found himself; and where, even in 
the best families, a greater degree of refinement might 
have rendered his conversation rather less acceptable. 
He was contented, in the present instance, to smile good- 
humouredly at the obvious discontent of Mordaunt Mer- 
toun, and replied, ‘‘ You are angry with me, my good 
friend, but you cannot make me angry with you. The 
fair hands of all the pretty women I ever saw in my life 
would never have fished me up out of the roost of Sum- 
bujrgh. So pray, do not quarrel with me ; for here is Mi;. 
Halcro witness that I have struck both jack and topsail, 
and should you fire a broadside into me, cannot return a 
single shot.” 

“ Ay, ay,” said Halcro, “ you must be friends with 
Captain Cleveland, Mordaunt. Never quarrel with your 
friend, because a woman is whimsical. Why, man, if 
they kept one humour, how the devil could we make so 
many songs on them as we do ? Even old Dryden him 

VOL. I. 


158 


THE PIRATE. 


self, glorious old John, could have said little about a girl 
that was always of one mind — as well write verses upon 
a mill-pond. It is your tides and your roosts, and* your 
currents and eddies that come and go, and ebb and flow, 
(by Heaven ! I run into rhyme when I so much as think 
upon them,) that smile one day, rage the next, flatter and 
devour, delight and ruin us, and so forth — it is these that 
give the real soul of poetry. Did you never hear my 
Adieu to the Lass of Northmaven — that was poor Bet 
Stimbister, whom I call Mary for the sound’s sake, as I 
call myself Hacon after my great ancestor Hacon Golde- 
mund, or Haco with the golden mouth, who came to the 
island with Harold Harfager, and was his chief Scald ? 
— Well, but where was I ? — O ay — poor Bet Stimbister, 
she, (and partly some debt) was the cause of my leaving 
the isles of Hialtland, (better so called than Shetland, or 
.Zetland even,) and taking to the broad world. I have 
had a tramp of it since that time — I have battled my way 
through the world. Captain, as a man of mould may, that 
has a light head, a light purse, and a heart as light as them 
both — fought my way, and paid my way — that is, either 
with money or wit — have seen kings changed and de- 
posed as you would turn a tenant out of a scathold — knew 
all the wits of the age, and especially the glorious John 
Dryden — what man in the islands can say as much, bar- 
ring lying ? — I had a pinch out of his own snuff-box — 1 
will tell you how I came by such promotion.” 

“ But the song, Mr. Halcro,” said Captain Cleveland. 

“ The song answered Halcro, seizing the Captain 
by the button, — for he was too much accustomed to have 
his audience escape from him during recitation, not to put 
in practice all the usual means of prevention — “ The 
song ? — Why, I gave a copy of it, with fifteen others, to 
die immortal John. You shall hear it — ^you shall hear 
them all, if you will but stand still a moment ; and you 
too, my dear boy, Mordaunt Mertoun, I have scarce heard 
a word from your mouth these six months, and now you 
are running away from me.” So saying, he secured him 
with his other hand. 


THE PIRATE. 


159 


“ Nay, now he has got us both in tow,” said the sea- 
man, there is nothing for it but hearing him out, though 
he spins as tough a yarn as ever an old man-of-war’s-man 
twisted on the watch at midnight.” 

“ Nay, now, be silent, be silent, and let one of us 
speak at once,” said the poet, imperatively ; while Cleve- 
land and Mordaunt, looking at each other with a ludi- 
crous expression of resignation to their fate, waited in 
submission for the well-known and inevitable tale. “ I 
will tell you all about it,” continued Halcro. ‘‘ I was 
knocked about the world like other young fellows, doing 
this, that, and t’other, for a livelihood ; for, thank God, I 
could turn my hand to anything — but loving still the Muses 
as much as if the ungrateful jades had found me, like so 
many blockheads, in my own coach and six. However 
J held out till my cousin, old Lawrence Linkletter, died, 
and left me the bit of an island yonder ; although, by the 
way, Cultmalindie was as near to him as I was ; but Law- 
rence loved wit, though he had little of his own. Well, 
he left me the wee bit island — it is as barren as Parnassus 
itself. What then ? — I have a penny to spend, a penny 
to keep my purse, a penny to give to the poor — ay, and 
a bed and a bottle for a friend, as you shall know, boys, if 
you will go back with me when this rperriment is over. — 
But where was I in my story ?” 

“ Near port, I hope,” answered Cleveland ; but Hal- 
cro was too determined a narrator to be interrupted by 
the broadest hint. 

“ O ay,” he resumed, with the self-satisfied air of one 
who has recovered the thread of a story, “ I was in my 
old lodgings in Russel-street, with old Timothy Thimble 
thwaite, the Master Fashioner, then the best-known man 
about town. He made for all the wits, and for the dull 
boobies of fortune besides, and made the one pay for the 
other. He never denied a wit credit save in jest, or for 
the sake of getting a repartee , and he was in corres- 
pondence with all that was worth knowing about town. 
He had letters from Crowne, and Tate, and Prior, and 
Tom Brown, and all the famous fellows of the t’me, with 


160 


THE PIRATE. 


such pellets of wit, that there was no reading them with- 
out laughing ready to die, and all ending with craving a 
further term for payment.” 

I should have thought the tailor would have found 
that jest rather serious,” said Mordaunt. 

“ Not a bit — not a bit,” replied his eulogist, “ Tim 
Thimblethwaite (he was a Cumberland-man by birth) 
had the soul of a prince — ay, and died with the fortune of 
one ; for wo betide the custard-gorged alderman that 
came under Tim’s goose, after he had got one of those 
letters — egad, he was sure to pay the kain ! Why, 
Thimblethwaite was thought to be the original of little 
Tom Bibber, in glorious John’s comedy of the Wild Gal- 
lant ; and I know that he has trusted, ay, and lent John 
money to boot out of his own pocket, at a time when all 
his fine court friends blew cold enough. He trusted me 
too, and I have been two months on the score at a time 
for my upper room. To be sure, I was obliging in his 
way — not that I exactly could shape or sew, nor would 
that have been decorous for a gentleman of good descent , 
but I — eh, eh — I drew bills — summed up the books — ” 

“ Carried home the clothes of the wits and aldermen, 
and got lodging for your labour?” interrupted Cleveland. 

‘‘ No, no — damn it, no,” replied Halcro ; “ no such 
thing — you put me out in my story — where was I ?” 

“ Nay, the devil help you to the latitude,” said the 
Captain, extricating his button from the gripe of the un- 
merciful bard’s finger and thumb, ‘‘ for 1 have no time to 
take an observation.” So saying, he bolted from the 
room. 

“ A silly, ill-bred, conceited fool,” said Halcro, look- 
ing after him ; “ with as little manners as wit in his empty 
coxcomb. I wonder what Magnus and these silly wench- 
es can see in him — he tells such damnable long-winded 
stories, too, about his adventures and sea-fights — every 
second word a lie, I doubt not. Mordaunt, my dear boy 
take example by that man — that is, take warning by him 
— never tell long stories about yourself. You are some- 
times given to talk too much about your own exploits on 


THE PIRATE. 


ICl 


crags and skerries, and the like, which on.y breaks con- 
versation, and prevents other folk from being heard. 
Now I see you are impatient to hear out what I was say- 
ing — Stop, whereabouts was I ?” 

“ I fear we must put it off, Mr. Halcro, until after din- 
ner,” said Mordaunt, who also meditated his escape, 
though desirous of effecting it with more delicacy towards 
his old acquaintance than Captain Cleveland had thought 
it necessary to use. 

Nay, my dear boy,” said Halcro, seeing himself 
about to be utterly deserted, ‘‘ do not you leave me too — 
never take so bad an example as to set light by old ac- 
quaintance, Mordaunt. I have wandered many a weary 
step in my day ; but they were always lightenec}, when I 
could get hold of the arm of an old friend like yourself.” 

So saying, he quitted the youth’s coat, and, sliding his 
hand gently under his arm, grappled him more effectually ; 
to which Mordaunt submitted, a little moved by the poet’s 
observation upon the unkindness of old acquaintances, 
under which he himself was an immediate sufferer. But 
when Halcro renewed his formidable question, “ Where- 
abouts was I ?” Mordaunt, preferring his poetry to his 
prose, reminded him of the song which he said he had 
written upon his first leaving Zetland, — a song to which, 
indeed, the inquirer was no stranger, but which, as it must 
be new to the reader, we shall here insert as a favourable 
specimen of the poetical powers of this tuneful descend- 
ant of Haco the Golden-mouthed ; for, in the opinion of 
many tolerable judges, he held a respectable rank among 
the inditers of madrigals of the period, and was as well 
qualified to give immortality to his Nancies of the hiJls or 
dales, as many a gentle sonnetteer of wit and pleasure 
about town. He was something of a musician also, and 
on the present occasion seized upon a sort of lute, and, 
quitting his victim, prepared the instrument for an accom- 
paniment, speaking all the while that he might lose no time 

" I learned the lute,” he said, ‘‘ from the same man 
who taught honest Shadwell — plump Tom, as they used 

VOL. I. 


162 


THE PIRATE 


to call him — somewhat roughly treated by the glorious 
John, you remember — Mordaunt, you remember — 


* Methlnks I see the new Arion sail, 

The lute still trembling underneath thy nail ; 

At thy well sharpen'd thumb, from shore to shore, 
The trebles squeak for fear, the basses roar.' 


Come, I am indifferently in tune now — what was it to be ? 
— ay, I remember — nay, The Lass of Northmaven is the 
ditty — poor Bet Stimbister ! I have called her Mary in 
the verses. Betsey does well for an English song ; but 
Mary is more natural here.” So saying, after a short 
prelude, he sung, with a tolerable voice and some taste 
tiie following verses : 


“ Farewell to Northmaven, 

Grey Hillswicke, farewell ! 

To the calms of thy haven, 

The storms on thy fell — 

To each breeze that can vary 
The mood of thy main. 

And to thee, bonny Mary ! 

We meet not again. 

Farewell the wild ferry, 

Which Hacon could brave. 

When the peaks of the Skeny 
Were white in the wave. 

There's a maid may look over 
These wild waves in vain. 

For the skiff of her lover 
He comes not again. 

The vows thou hast broke. 

On the wild currents fling them i 
On the quicksand and rock 
Let the mermaiden sing them. 
New sweetness they’ll give her 
Bewildering strain ; 

But there’s one who will never 
Believe them again. 


THE FIB ATE. 


163 


" O were there an island, 

Though ever so wild, 

Where woman could smile, 

No man be beguiled — 

Too tempting a snare 
To poor mortals were given. 
And the hope would fix there. 
That should anchor on heaven!” 


‘ I see you are softened, my young friend,” said Hal- 
cro, when he had finished his song ; “ so are most who 
hear that same ditty. Words and music both mine own ; 
and, witliout saying much of the wit of it, there is a sort 
of eh — eh — simplicity and truth about it, which gets 
Its way to most folk’s heart. Even your father cannot 
resist it — and he has a heart as impenetrable to poetry 
and song as Apollo himself could draw an arrow against. 
But then he has had some ill luck in his time with the 
women-folk, as is plain, from his owing them such a grudge 
— Ay, ay, there the charm lies — none of us but has felt 
the same sore in our day. But come, my dear boy, they 
are mustering in the hall, men and women both — plagues 
as they are, we should get on ill without them — but be- 
fore we go, only mark the last turn — 

* And the hope would fix there,’ — 

that is, in the supposed island — a place which neither was 
nor will be — 

* I'hat should anchor on heaven.’ 

Now you see, my good young man, there are here none 
of your heathenish rants, which Rochester, Etheridge, 
and these wild fellows, used to string together. A parson 
might sing the song, and his clerk bear the burden — but 
there is the confounded bell — we must go now — but never 
mind — we’ll get into a quiet corner at night, and VI teL 
you all about it.” 

8 


164 


THE PIRATE 


CHAPTER Xin 

Full in the midst the polish’d table shines, 

And the bright goblets, rich with generous winea ; 

Now each partakes the feast, the wine prepares. 

Portions the food, and each the portion shares ; 

Nor till the rage of thirst and hunger ceased, 

To the high host approach’d the sagacious guest. 

Odyssetj. 

The hospitable profusion of Magnus Troil’s board, the 
number of guests who feasted in the hall, the much greater 
number of retainers, attendants, humble friends, and do- 
mestics of every possible description, who revelled with- 
out, with the multitude of the still poorer, and less hon- 
oured assistants, who came from every hamlet or town- 
ship within twenty miles round, to share the bounty of 
the munificent Udaller, were such as altogether astonished 
Triptolemus Yellowley, and made him internally doubt 
whether it would be prudent in him at this time, and amid 
the full glow of his hospitality, to propose to the host who 
presided over such a splendid banquet, a radical change 
in the whole customs and usages of his country. 

True, the sagacious Triptolemus felt conscious that he 
po.ssessed in his own person wisdom far superior to that 
of all the assembled feasters, to say nothing of the land- 
lord, against whose prudence the very extent of his hos- 
pitality formed, in Yellowley’s opinion, sufficient evidence. 
But yet the Amphitryon with whom one dines, holds, for 
the time at least, an influence over the minds of his most 
distinguished guests ; and if the dinner be in good style, 
and the wines of the right quality, it is humbling to see 
that neither art nor wisdom, scarce external rank itself, 
can assume their natural and wonted superiority over the 
distributor of these good things, until coffee has been 
brought in. Triptolemus felt the full weight of this tern 


THE PIRATE. 


165 


porary superiority, yet he was desirous to do something that 
might vindicate the vaunts he had made to his sister and 
his fellow-traveller, and he stole a look at them from time 
to time, to mark whether he was not sinking in their 
esteem from postponing his promised lecture on the enor- 
mities of Zetland. 

But Mrs. Barbara was busily engaged in noting and 
registering the waste incurred in such an entertainment as 
she had probably never before looked upon, and in ad- 
miring the host’s indi^erence to, and the guests’ absolute 
negligence of, those rules of civility in which her youth 
had been brought up. The feasters desired to be helped 
from a dish which was unbroken, and might have figured 
at supper, with as much freedom as if it had undergone 
the ravages of half-a-dozen guests ; and no one seemed to 
care — the landlord himself least of all — whether those 
dishes only were consumed, which, from their nature, 
were incapable of re-appearance, or whether the assault 
was extended to the substantial rounds of beef, pasties, 
and so forth, which, by the rules of good housewifery, 
were destined to stand two attacks, and which, therefore, 
according to Mrs. Barbara’s ideas of politeness, ought not 
to have been annihilated by the guests upon the first onset, 
but spared, like Outis in the cave of Polyphemus, to be 
devoured the last. Lost in the meditations to which these 
breaches of convivial discipline gave rise, and in the con- 
templation of an ideal larder of cold meat which she 
could have saved out of the wreck of roast, boiled, and 
baked, sufficient to have supplied her cupboard for at 
least a twelvemonth, Mrs. Barbara cared very little wheth- 
er or not her brother supported in its extent the character 
which he had calculated upon assuming. 

Mordaunt Mertoun also was conversant with far other 
thoughts than those which regarded the proposed reformer 
of Zetland enormities. His seat was betwixt two blithe 
maidens of Thule, who, not taking scorn that he had upon 
other occasions given preference to the daughters of the 
Udaller, were glad of the chance which assigned to them 
the attentions of so distinguished a gallant, who, as being 


166 


THE PIRATE. 


their squire at the feast, might in all probability become 
their partner in the subsequent dance. But, whilst ren- 
dering to his fair neighbours all the usual attentions which 
society required, Mordaunt kept up a covert, but accu- 
rate and close observation, upon his estranged friends, 
Minna and Brenda. The Udaller himself had a share ol 
his attention ; but in him he could remark nothing, except 
the usual tone of hearty and somewhat boisterous hospi- 
tality, with which he was accustomed to animate the ban- 
quet upon all such occasions of general festivity. But in 
the differing mien of the two maidens there was much 
more room for painful remark. 

Captain Cleveland sat betwixt the sisters, was sedulous 
in his attentions to both, and Mordaunt was so placed, that 
he could observe all, and hear a great deal, of what pass- 
ed between them. But Cleveland’s peculiar regard 
seemed devoted to the elder sister. Of this the younger 
was perhaps conscious, for more than once her eye glanc- 
ed towards Mordaunt, and, as he thought, with sometliing 
in it which resembled regret for the interruption of their 
intercourse, and a sad remembrance of former and more 
friendly times ; while Minna was exclusively engrossed 
by the attentions of her neighbour ; and that it should be 
so, filled Mordaunt with surprise and resentment. 

Minna, the serious, the prudent, the reserved, whose 
countenance and manners indicated so much elevation of 
character — Minna, the lover of solitude, and of those 
paths of knowledge in which men walk best without com^ 
pany — the enemy of light mirth, the friend of musing 
melancholy, and the frequenter of fountain-heads and 
pathless glens — she, whose character seemed, in short, the 
very reverse of that which might be captivated by the 
bold, coarse, and daring gallantry of such a man as this 
Captain Cleveland, gave, nevertheless, her eye and ear 
to him, as he sat beside her at table, with an interest and 
a graciousness of attention, which, to Mordaunt, who well 
knew how to judge of her feelings by her manner, inti- 
mated a degree of the highest favour. He observed this, 
and his heart rose against the favourite by whom he had 


THE PIRATE. 


167 


been thus superseded, as well as against Minna’s indis- 
creet departure from her own character. 

“ What is there about the man,” he said within him- 
self, “ more than the bold and daring assumption of 
importance which is derived from success in petty enter- 
prizes, and the exercise of petty despotism over a ship’s 
crew ? — his very language is more professional than is us- 
ed by the superior officers of the British navy ; and the 
wit which has excited so many smiles, seems to me such as 
Minna would not formerly have endured for an instant. 
Even Brenda seems less taken with his gallantry than 
Minna, whom it should have suited so little.” 

Mordaunt was doubly mistaken in these his angry spec- 
ulations. In the first place, with an eye which was, in 
some respects, that of a rival, he criticised far too severe- 
ly the manners and behaviour of Captain Cleveland. 
They were unpolished, certainly ; which was of the less 
consequence in a country inhabited by so plain and sim- 
ple a race as the ancient Zetlanders. On the other hand, 
there was an open, naval frankness in Cleveland’s bearing 
— much natural shrewdness — some appropriate humour 
— an undoubting confidence in himself — and that enter- 
prizing hardihood of disposition, which, without any other 
recommendable quality, very often leads to success with 
the fair sex. But Mordaunt was farther mistaken, in sup- 
posing that Cleveland was likely to be disagreeable to 
Minna Troil, on account of the opposition of their char- 
acters in so many material particulars. Had his know- 
ledge of the world been a little more extensive, he might 
have observed, that as unions are often formed betwixt 
couples differing in complexion and stature, they take 
place still more frequently betwixt persons totally differ- 
ing in feelings, in taste, in pursuits, and in understanding 
and it would not be saying, perhaps, too much, to aver, 
that two-thirds of the marriages around us have been 
contracted betwixt persons, who, judging a priori^ we 
should have thought had scarce any charms for each other. 

A moral and primary cause might be easily assigned 
for these anomalies, in the wise dispensations of Provi- 


168 


THE rmATE. 


dence, that the general balance of wit, wisdom, and ami- 
able qualities of all kinds, should be kept up through 
society at large. For, what a world were it, if the wise 
tvere to intermarry only with the wise, the learned with 
the learned, the amiable with the amiable, nay, even the 
handsome with the handsome ? and, is it not evident, that 
the degraded castes of the foolish, the ignorant, the bru- 
tal, and the deformed, (comprehending, by the way, far 
the greater portion of mankind,) must, when condemned 
to exclusive intercourse with each other, become gradual- 
ly as much brutalized in person and disposition as so many 
ourang-outangs ? When, therefore, we see the “ gentle 
joined to the rude,” we may lament the fate of the suf- 
fering individual, but we must not the less admire the 
mysterious disposition of that wise Providence which thus 
balances the moral good and evil of life ; — which secures 
for a family, unhappy in the dispositions of one parent, a 
share of better and sweeter blood, transmitted from the 
other, and preserves to the offspring the affectionate care 
and protection of at least one of those from whom it is 
naturally due. Without the frequent occurrence of such 
alliances and unions — mis-sorted as they seem at first 
sight — the world could not be that for which Eternal Wis- 
dom has designed it — a place of mixed good and evil — a 
place of trial at once, and of suffering, where even the 
worst ills are chequered with something that renders them 
tolerable to humble and patient minds, and where the best 
blessings carry with them a necessary alloy of embitter- 
ing depreciation. 

When, indeed, we look a little closer on the causes of 
those unexpected and ill-suited attachments, we have oc- 
casion to acknowledge, that the means by which they are 
produced do not infer that complete departure from, or 
inconsistency with, the character of the parties, which we 
might expect when the result alone is contemplated. The 
wise purposes which Providence appears to have had in 
view, by permitting such intermixture of dispositions, 
tempers, and understandings, in the married state, are not 
Accomplished by any mysterious impulse by which, in 


THE PIRATE. 


169 


contradiction to the ordinary laws of nature, men or 
woman are urged to an union with those whom the world 
see to be unsuitable to them. The freedom of will is 
permitted to us in the occurrences of ordinary life, as in 
our moral conduct ; and in the former as well as the lat- 
ter case, is often the means of misguiding those who pos- 
sess it. Thus it usually happens, more especially to the 
enthusiastic and imaginative, that, having formed a pic- 
ture of admiration in their own mind, they too often de- 
ceive themselves by some faint resemblance in some 
existing being, whom their fancy, as speedily as gratui- 
tously, invests with all the attributes necessary to complete 
the beau ideal of mental perfection. No one, perhaps, 
even in the happiest marriage, with an object really be- 
loved, ever discovered by experience all the qualities he 
expected to possess ; but in far too many cases, he finds 
he has practised a much higher degree of mental decep- 
tion, and has erected his airy castle of felicity upon some 
rainbow, which owed its very existence only to the pecu- 
liar state of the atmosphere. 

Thus Mordaunt, if better acquainted with life, and with 
the course of human things, would have been little sur- 
prised that such a man as Cleveland, handsome, bold, and 
animated, — a man who had obviously lived in danger, and 
who spoke of it as sport, should have been invested, by 
a girl of Minna’s fanciful disposition, with an extensive 
share of those qualities, which, in her active imagination, 
were held to fill up the accomplishments of a heroic char- 
acter. The plain bluntness of his manner, if remote from 
courtesy, appeared at least as widely different from de- 
ceit ; and, unfashioned as he seemed by forms, he had 
enough both of natural sense, and natural good-breeding, 
to support the delusion he had created, at least as far as 
externals were concerned. It is scarce necessary to add, 
that these observations apply exclusively to what are call- 
ed love-matches ; for when either party fix their attach- 
ment upon the substantial comforts of a rental, or a joint- 
ure, the V cannot be disappointed in the acquisition, although 

VOL. I. 


t70 


THE PIRATE. 


they may be cruelly so in their over-estimation of Lje 
happiness it was to afford, or in having too slightly antici- 
pated the disadvantages with which it was to be attended. 

Having a certain partiality for the dark Beauty whom 
we have described, we have willingly dedicated this di- 
gression, in order to account for a line of conduct which 
we allow to seem absolutely unnatural in such a narrative 
as the present, though the most common event in ordinary 
life ; namely, in Minna’s appearing to have over-estimated 
die taste, talent, and ability of a handsome young man, 
who was dedicating to her his whole time and attention, 
and whose homage rendered her the envy of almost all 
the other young women of that numerous party. Per- 
haps, if our fair readers will take the trouble to consult 
their own bosoms, they will be disposed to allow, that the 
distinguished good taste exhibited by any individual, who, 
when his attentions would be agreeable to a whole circle 
of rivals, selects one as their individual object, entitles him, 
on the footing of reciprocity, if on no other, to a large share 
of that individual’s favourable, and even partial, esteem. 
At any rate, if the character shall, after all, be deemed 
mconsistent and unnatural, it concerns not us, who record 
die facts as we find them, and pretend no privilege for 
bringing closer to nature those incidents which may seem 
to diverge from it ; or for reducing to consistence that 
most inconsistent of all created things — the heart of a 
beautiful and admired female. 

Necessity, which teaches all the liberal arts, can render 
us also adepts in dissimulation ; and Mordaunt, though a 
novice, failed not to profit in her school. It was manifest, 
that, in order to observe the demeanour of those on whom 
his attention was fixed, he must needs put constraint on 
his own, and appear, at least, so much engaged with the 
damsels betwixt whom he sat, that Minna and Brenda 
should suppose him indifferent to what was passing around 
him. The ready cheerfulness of Maddie and Clara 
Groatseltars, who were esteemed considerable fortunes in 
the island, and were at this moment too happy in feeling 
themselves seated somewhat beyond the sphere of vigil- 


THE PIRATE. 


171 


ance influenced by their aunt, the good old Lady Glow- 
rowrum, met and requited the attempts which Mordaunt 
made to be lively and entertaining ; and they were soon 
engaged in a gay conversation, to which, as usual on such 
occasions, the gentlemen contributed wit, or what passes 
for such, and the ladies their prompt laughter and liberal 
applause. But, amidst this seeming mirth, Mordaunt fail- 
ed not, from time to time, as covertly as he might, to ob- 
serve the conduct of the two daughters of Magnus ; and 
still it appeared as if the elder, wrapt up in the conversa- 
tion of Cleaveland, did not cast away a thought on the 
rest of the company ; and as if Brenda, more openly as 
she conceived his attention withdrawn from her, looked 
with an expression both anxious and melancholy towards 
the group of which he himself formed a part. He was 
much moved by the diffidence, as well as the trouble, 
which her looks seemed to convey, and tacitly formed the 
resolution of seeking a more full explanation with her in 
the course of the evening. Norna, he remembered, had 
stated that these two amiable young women were in dan- 
ger, the nature of which she left unexplained, but which 
he suspected to arise out of their mistaking the character 
of this daring and all-engrossing stranger ; and he secretly 
resolved, that, if possible, he would be the means of de- 
tecting Cleveland, and of saving his early friends. 

As he revolved these thoughts, his attention to the Miss 
Groatsettars gradually diminished, and perhaps he might 
altogether have forgotten the necessity of his appearing 
an uninterested spectator of what was passing, had not the 
signal been given for the ladies retiring from table. Min- 
na, with a native grace, and somewhat of stateliness in 
her manner, bent her head to the company in general, 
with a kinder and more particular expression as her eye 
reached Cleveland. Brenda, with the blush which at- 
tended her slightest personal exertion when exposed to 
the eyes of others, hurried through the same departing 
salutation with an embarrassment which almost amounted 
to awkwardness, but which her youth and timidity ren- 
der d at once natural and interesting. Again Mordaunt 


172 


THE PIRATE. 


thought that her eye distinguished him amidst the nuiiier- 
ous company. For the first time he ventured to encoun- 
ter and to return the glance ; and the consciousness that 
he had done so, doubled the glow of Brenda’s counte- 
nance, while something resembling displeasure was blend- 
ed with her emotion. 

When the ladies had retired, the men betook themselves 
to the deep and serious drinking, which, according to the 
fashion of the times, preceded the evening exercise of the 
dance. Old Magnus himself, by precept and example, 
exhorted them “ to make the best use of their time, since 
die ladies would soon summon them to shake their feet,’ 
at the same time giving the signal to a grey-headed do-* 
mestic, who stood behind him in the dress of a Dantzic 
skipper, and who added to many other occupations that 
of butler, “ Eric Scambester,” he said, “ has the good 
ship the Jolly Mariner of Canton, got her cargo on board ?” 

“ Chokefull loaded,” answered the Ganymede of 
Burgh- Westra, “ with good Nantz, Jamaica sugar, Por- 
tugal lemons, not to mention nutmeg and toast, and water 
taken in from the Shellicoat spring.” 

Loud and long laughed the guests at this stated and 
regular jest betwixt the Udaller and his butler, which al- 
ways served as a preface to the introduction of a punch- 
bowl of enormous size, the gift of the captain of one of 
the Honourable East* India Company’s vessels, which, 
bound fromChina homeward, had been driven north-about 
by stress of weather into Lerwick-bay, , and had there 
contrived to get rid of part of the cargo, without ver) 
scrupulously reckoning for the King’s duties. 

Magnus Troil, having been a large customer, besides 
otherwise obliging Captain Coolie, had been remunerated, 
on the departure of the ship, with this splendid vehi( le of 
conviviality, at the very sight of which, as old Eric Scam- 
bester bent under its weight, a murmur of applause ran 
through the company. The good old toasts dedicated to 
the prosperity of Zetland, were then honoured with flowing 
bumpers. Death to the head that never wears hair 1” 
was a sentiment quaffed to the success of the fishing, as 
proposed by the sonorous voice of the Udaller. Claud 


THE PIRATE. 


173 


Halcro proposed with general applause, “ The health of 
their worthy landmaster, the sweet sister rneat-mistresses ; 
health to man, death to fish, and growth to the produce of 
the ground.” The same recurring sentiment was propos- 
ed more concisely by a whiteheaded compeer of Magnus 
Troil, in the words, “ God open the mouth of the grey 
fish, and keep his hand about the corn !”23 

Full opportunity was afforded to all to honour these in- 
teresting toasts. Those nearest the capacious Mediterra- 
nean of punch, were accommodated by the Udaller with 
their portions, dispensed in huge rummer glasses by his 
own hospitable hand, whilst they who sat at a greater dis- 
'tance replenished their cups by means of a rich silver flag- 
on, facetiously called the Pinnace ; which, filled occasion- 
ally at the bowl, served to dispense its liquid treasures to 
the more remote parts of the table, and occasioned many 
right merry jests on its frequent voyages. The commerce 
of the Zetlanders with foreign vessels, and homeward- 
bound West Indiamen, had early served to introduce 
among them the general use of the generous beverage, with 
which the Jolly Mariner of Canton was loaded ; nor was 
there a man in the Archipelago of Thule more skilled in 
combining its rich ingredients, than old Eric Scambester, 
who indeed was known far and wide through the isles by the 
name of the Punch-maker, after the fashion of the ancient 
Norwegians, who conferred on Rollo the Walker, and other 
heroes of their strain, epithets expressive of the feats of 
strength or dexterity in which they excelled all oihef men. 

The good liquor was not slow in performing its office 
of exhilaration, and, as the revel advanced, some ancient 
Norse drinking-songs were sung with great effect by the 
guests, tending to show, that if from want of exercise the 
martial virtues of their ancestors had decayed aniong the 
Zetlanders, they could still actively and intensely enjoy 
so much of the pleasures of Valhalla as consisted in quaf- 
fing the oceans of mead and brown ale, which were prom- 
ised by Odin to those wlio should share his Scandinavian 
paradise. At length, excited by the cup and song, the 
diffiden grew bold, and the modest loquacious — all be- 

VOL. 1. 


174 


THE PIRATE. 


came desirous of talking, and none were willing to listen 
■ — each man mounted his own special hobby-horse, and 
began eagerly to call on his neighbours to witness his 
agility. Amongst others, the little bard, who had now got 
next to our friend Mordaunt Mertoun, evinced a positive 
determination to commence and conclude, in all its longi- 
tude and latitude, the story of his introduction to glorious 
John Dryden ; and Triptolemus Yellowley, as his spirits 
arose, shaking off a feeling of involuntary awe, with which 
he was impressed by the opulence indicated in all he saw 
around him, as well as by the respect paid to Magnus - 
Troil by the assembled guests, began to broach, to the as- 
tonished and somewhat offended Udaller, some of those 
projects for ameliorating the islands, which he had boasted 
of to his fellow-travellers upon their journey of the morning. 

But the innovations which he suggested, and the re 
ception which they met with at the hand of Magnus Troil, 
must be told in the next Chapter. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

We’ll keep our customs^— what is law itself, 

But old establish’d custom ? What religion, 

(I mean, with one-half of the men that use it,) 

Save the good use and wont that carries them 
To worship how and where their fathers worshipp’d ? 

\ All things resolve in custom — we’ll keep ours . — Old Play. 

We left the company of Magnus Troil engaged in high 
wassail and revelry. Mordaunt, who, like his father, shun- 
ned the festive cup, did not partake in the cheerfulness 
which the ship diffused among the guests as they unloaded 
it, and the pinnace, as it circumnavigated the table. But, 
in low spirits as he seemed, he was the more meet pre^ 
for the story-telling Halcro, who had fixed upon him, as in 
a favourable state to play the part of listener, with some- 
thing of the same instinct that directs the hooded crow to 
the sick sheep among the flock, which will most patiently 
suffer itself to be made a prey of. Joyfully did the poet avail 
himself of the advantages afforded by Mordaunt’s absence 


THE PIRATE. 


175 


of mind, and unwillingness to exert himself in measures 
of active defence. With the unfailing dexterity peculiar 
to prosers, he contrived to dribble out his tale to double 
its usual length, by the exercise of the privilege of un- 
limited digressions ; so that the story, like a horse on the 
grand pas, seemed to be advancing with rapidity, while, 
in reality, it scarce was progressive at the rate of a yard 
in the quarter of an hour. At length, however, he had 
discussed, in all its various bearings and relations, the his- 
tory of his friendly landlord, the master-fashioner in Rus- 
sel-street, including a short sketch of five of his relations, 
and anecdotes of three of his principal rivals, together 
with some general observations upon the dress and fashion 
of the period ; and having marched thus far through the 
environs and outworks of his story, he arrived at the body 
of the place, for so the Wits’ Coffee-house might be term- 
ed. He paused on the threshold, however, to explain the 
nature of his landlord’s right occasionally to intrude him- 
self into this well-known temple of the Muses. 

“ It consisted,” said Halcro, “ in the two principal 
points, of bearing and forbearing ; for my friend Thim- 
blethwaite was a person of wit himself, and never quar- 
relled with any jest which the wags who frequented that 
house were flinging about, like squibs and crackers on a 
rejoicing night ; and then, though some of the wits — ay, 
and 1 daresay the greater number, might have had some 
dealings with him in the w'ay of trade, he never was the 
person to put any man of genius in unpleasant remem- 
brance of such trifles. And though, my dear young Mas- 
ter Mordaunt, you may think this is but ordinary civility, 
because in this country it happens seldom that there is 
either much borrowing or lending, and because, praised 
be Heaven, there are neither bailiffs nor sheriff-officers to 
take a poor fellow by the neck, and because there are no 
prisons to put him into when they have done so, yet, let 
me tell you, that such a lamb-like forbearance as that of 
my poor, dear, deceased landlord, Thimblethwaite, is 
truly uncommon within the London bills of mortality. 1 
could tell you of such things that have happened even to 
myself, as well as others, with these cursed London trades- 


176 


THE PIRATE. 


men, as would make your hair stand on end. — But what the 
devil has put old Magnus into such note ? he shouts as if 
he were trying his voice against a north-west gale of wind.” 

Loud indeed was the roar of the old Udaller, as, worn 
out of patience by the schemes of improvement which 
the factor was now undauntedly pressing upon his consid- 
eration, he answered him, (to use an Ossianic phrase,) 
like a wave upon a rock, 

“ Trees, Sir Factor — talk not to me of trees ! I care 
not though there never be one on the island, tall enough 
to hang a coxcomb upon. We will have no trees but 
those that rise in our havens — the good trees that have 
yards for boughs, and standing-rigging for leaves.” 

“ But touching the draining of the lake of Braebaster 
whereof I spoke to you. Master Magus Troil,” said the 
persevering agriculturist, “ whilk I opine would be of so 
much consequence, there are two ways — ^down the Link- 
later glen, or by the Scalmester burn. Now, having 
taken a level of both” 

“ There is a third way. Master Yellowley,” answered 
the landlord. 

“ I profess I can see none,” replied Triptolemus, with 
as much good faith as a joker could desire in the subject 
of his wit, “ in respect that the hill called Braebaster on 
the south, and ane high bank on the north, of whilk I can- 
not carry the name rightly in my head” 

“ Do not tell us of hills and banks, Master Yellowley — 
there is a third way of draining the loch, and it is the only 
way that shall be tried in my day. You say my Lord 
Chamberlain and I are the joint proprietors — so be it — 
let each of us start an equal proportion of brandy, lime- 
juice, and sugar, into the loch — a ship’s cargo or two will 
do the job — let us assemble all the jolly Udallers of the 
country, and in twenty-four hours you shall see dry ground 
where the loch of Braebaster now is.” 

A loud laugh of applause, which for a time actually 
sdenced Triptolemus, attended a jest so very well suited 
to time and place — a jolly toast was given — a merry song 
was sung — the ship unloaded her sweets — the pinnace 
made its genial rounds — the duet betwixt Magnus and 


THE PIRATE. 


177 


Triptolemus, which had attracted the attention of the 
whole company from its superior vehemence, now once 
more sunk, and merged into the general hum of the con- 
vivial table, and the poet Halcro again resumed his usurp- 
ed possession of the ear of Mordaunt Mertoun. 

“ Whereabouts was I ?” he said, with a tone which 
expressed to his weary listener more plainly than words 
could, how much of his desultory tale yet remained to 
be told. “ O, I remember — we were just at the door of 
the Wits’ Coffee-house — it was set up by one ” 

“ Nay, but, my dear Master Halcro,” said his hearer, 
somewhat impatiently, “ T am desirous to hear of your 
meeting with Dryden.” 

“ What, with glorious John ? — true — ay — where was 
I ? At the Wits’ Coffee-house — Well, in at the door we 
got — the waiters, and so forth, staring at me ; for as to 
Thimblethwnite, honest fellow, his was a well-known face. 
— I can tell you a story about that” 

“ Nay, but John Dryden ?” said Mordaunt, in a tone 
which deprecated further digression. 

“ Ay, ay, glorious John — where was I ? — ^Well, as we 
stood close by the bar, where one fellew sat grinding of 
coffee, and another putting up tobacco into penny parcels 
— a pipe and a dish cost just a penny — then and there it 
was that I had the first peep of him. One Dennis sat 
near him, who ” 

‘‘ Nay, but John Dryden — what like was he ?” de- 
manded Mordaunt. 

“ Like a little fat old man, with his own grey hair, and 
in a full-trimmed black suit, that sat close as a glove. 
Honest ThimlDlethwaite let no one but himself shape for 
glorious John, and he had a slashing hand at a sleeve, I 
promise you — But there is no getting a mouthful of com- 
mon sense spoken here — d — n that Scotchman, he and 
old Magnus are at it again.” 

It was very true ; and although the interruption did not 
resemble a thunder-clap, to which the former stentorian 
exclamation of the Udaller might have been likened, it 
was a close and clamorous dispute, maintained by ques- 


178 


THE PIRATE. 


tion, answer, retort, ar.d repartee, as closely huddled upon 
each other as the sounds which announce from a distance 
a close and sustained fire of musketry. 

“ Hear reason, sir ?” said the Udaller ; ‘‘ we willheai 
reason, and speak reason too ; and if reason fall short, you 
shall have rhyme to boot. — Ha, my little friend Halcro !” 

Though cut off in the middle of his best story, (if that 
could be said to have a middle, which had neither be- 
ginning nor end,) the bard bristled up at the summons, 
like a corps of light infantry, when ordered up to the sup- 
port of the grenadiers, looked smart, slapped the table 
with his hand, and denoted his becoming readiness to back 
his hospitable landlord, as becomes a well-entertained 
guest. Triptolemus was a little daunted at this reinforce- 
ment of his adversary ; he paused, like a cautious gen- 
eral, in the sweeping attack which he had commenced on 
the peculiar usages of Zetland, and spoke not again until 
the Udaller poked him with the insulting query, “Where 
is your reason now. Master Yellowley, that you were 
deafening me with a moment since 

“ Be but patient, worthy sir,” replied the agriculturist ; 
“ what on earth can you or any other man say in defence 
of that thing you call a plough, in this blinded country ? 
Why, even the savage Higlilandmen, in Caithness and 
Sutherland, can make more work, and better, with their 
gascromh, or whatever ,they call it.” 

“ But what ails you at it, sir ?” said the I' '^dler ; “ let 
me hear your objections to it. It tills our laud, and what 
would ye more ?” 

“ It hath but one handle or stilt,” replied Triptolemus. 

“ And who the devil,” said the poet, aiming at some- 
thing smart, “ would wish to need a pair of stilts, if he can 
manage to walk with a single one 

“ Or tell me,” said Magnus Troil, “ how it were pos- 
sible for Neil of Lupness, that lost one arm by his fall 
from the crag of Nekbreckan, to manage a plough with 
two handles .^” 

“ The harness is of raw seal-skin,” said Triptolemus 

“ It will save dressed leather,” answered Magnus Troil. 


THE PIRATE. 


179 


“ It is drawn by four wretched bullocks,” sa d the agri- 
culturist, “ that are yoked breast-fashion ; and two women 
must follow this unhappy instrument, and complete the 
furrows with a couple of shovels.” 

“ Drink about. Master Yellowley,” said the Udaller ; 
“ and, as you say in Scotland, ‘ never fash your thumb.’ 
Our cattle are too high-spirited to let one go before the 
other ; our men are too gentle and well nurtured to tako 
the working-field without the women’s company ; our 
ploughs till our land — our land bears us barley ; we brew 
our ale, eat our bread, and make strangers welcome to 
their share of it. Here’s to you. Master Yellowley.” 

This was said in a tone meant to be decisive of the 
question ; and, accordingly, Halcro whispered to Mor- 
daunt, “ that has settled the matter, and now we will get 
on with glorious John. — There he sat in his suit of full- 
trimmed black 5 two years due was the bill, as mine honest 
landlord afterwards told me, — and such an eye in his 
head ! — none of your burning, blighting, falcon eyes, 
which we poets are apt to make a rout about, — but a soft, 
full, thoughtful, yet penetrating glance — never saw tlie 
like of it in my life, unless it were little Stephen Clean- 
cogg’s, the fiddler, at Papastow, who ” 

“ Nay, but John Dryden ?” said Mordaunt, who, for 
want of better amusement, had begun to take a sort ol 
pleasure in keeping the old gentleman to his narrative, as 
men herd in a restive sheep, when they wish to catch 
him. He returned to his theme, with his usual phrase 
of “ Ay, true — glorious John — Well, sir, he cast his eye 
such as I have described it, on mine landlord, ‘ and hon 
est Tim,’ said he, ‘ what hast thou got here ?’ anil all 
the wits, and lords, and gentlemen, that used to crowd 
round him, like the wenches round a pedlar at a fair, the}^ 
made way for us, and up we came to the fire-side, where 
he had his own established chair, — I have heard it was 
carried to the balcony in summer, but it was by the fire- 
side when I saw it, — so up came Tim Thimblethwaite, 
through the midst of them, as bold as a lion, and I fol- 


ISO 


THE PIRATE. 


taken up partly to oblige my landlord, as the shop porter was 
not in the way, and partly that I might be thought to have 
something to do there, for you are to think there was no 
admittance at the Wits’ for strangers who had no business 
there. — I have heard that Sir Charles Sedley said a good 
thing about that ” 

“ Nay, but you forget glorious John,” said Mordaunt. 

“ Ay, glorious you may well call him. They talk ol 
their Blackmore, and Shadwell, and such like, — not fit to 
tie the latchets of John’s shoes — “ Well,’ he said to my 
landlord, ‘ what have you got there ?’ and he, bowing, I 
warrant, lower than he would to a duke, said he had made 
bold to come and show him the stuff which Lady Eliza- 
beth had chose for her night-gown. — ‘ And which of your 
geese is that, Tim, who has got it tucked under his wing ?’ 
— ‘ He is an Orkney goose, if it please you, Mr. Dry- 
den,’ said Tim, who had wit at will, ‘ and he hath brought 
you a copy of verses for your honour to look at.’ — ‘ Is he 
amphibious ?’ said glorious John, taking the paper, — and 
methought I could rather have faced a battery of cannon 
than the crackle it gave as it opened, though he did not 
speak in a way to dash one neither ; — and then he looked 
at the verses, and he was pleased to say, in a very en- 
couraging way indeed, with a sort of good-humoured 
smile on his face, and certainly for a fat elderly gentle- 
man, — for I would not compare it to Minna’s smile, or 
Brenda’s, — he had the pleasantest smile I ever saw, — 
‘ Why, Tim,’ he said, ‘ this goose of yours will prove a 
swan on your hands.’ With that he smiled a little, and 
they all laughed, and none louder than those who stood 
too far off to hear the jest ; for every one knew when he 
smiled there was something worth laughing at, and so took 
it upon trust ; and the word passed through among the 
young Templars, and the wits, and the smarts, and there 
was nothing but question on question who we were ; and 
one French fellow was trying to tell them it was only 
Monsieur Tim Thimblethwaite ; but he made such work 
with his Dumbletate and Timbletate, that I thought his 
explanation would have lasted ” 


THE PIRATE. 


181 


‘ As long as ycur own story,” thought Mordaunt ; but 
the narrative was at lengtli finally cut short, by the strong 
and decided voice of the Udaller. 

‘‘ I will heafno more on it, Mr. Factor,” he exclaimed 

“ At least let me say something about the breed ol 
horses,” said Yellowley, in rather a cry-mercy tone of 
voice. “ Your horses, my dear sir, resemble cats in 
size, and tigers in devilry !” 

“ For their size,” said Magnus, “ they are the easier 
for us to get off and on them — (as Triptolemus experi- 
enced this morning, thought Mordaunt to himself) — and, 
as for their devilry, let no one mount them that cannot 
manage them.” 

A twinge of self-conviction, on the part of the agricul- 
turist, prevented him from reply. He darted a depreca- 
tory glance at Mordaunt, as if for the purpose of imploring 
secrecy respecting his tumble ; and the Udaller, who saw 
his advantage, although he was not aware of the cause, 
pursued it with the high and stern tone proper to one who 
had all his life been unaccustomed to meet with, and un- 
apt to endure, opposition. 

“ By the blood of Saint Magnus the Martyr,” he said, 
“ but you are a fine fellow. Master Factor Yellowley ! 

ou come to us from a strange land, understanding neith- 
er our laws, nor our manners, nor our language, and you 
propose to become governor of the country, and that we 
should all be your slaves !” 

My pupils, worthy sir, my pupils I” said Yellowley, 
“ and that only for your own proper advantage.” 

“ We are too old to go to school,” said the Zetlander 
“ I tell you once more, we will sow and reap our grain 
as our fathers did — we will eat what God sends us, with 
our doors open to the stranger, even as theirs were open. 
If there is aught imperfect in our practice, we will amend 
‘t in time and season ; but the blessed Baptist’s holyday 
was made for light hearts and quick heels. He that speaks 
a word more of reason, as you call it, or anything that 
looks like it, shall swallow a pint of sea-water — he shall, 

VOL. I 


182 


THE PIRATE. 


by this hand — and so fill up the good ship, the Jolly Mai 
iner of Canton, once more, for the benefit of those that 
will stick by her ; and let the rest have a fling with the 
fiddlers, who have been summoning us this hour. I will 
warrant every wench is on tiptoe by this time. Come, 
Mr. Yellowley, no unkindness, man — why, man, thou 
feelest the rolling of the Jolly Mariner still — (for, in truth, 
honest Triptolemus showed a little unsteadiness of mo- 
tion, as he rose to attend his host) — but never mind, we 
shall have thee find thy land-legs to reel it with yonder 
bonnie belles. Come along, Triptolemus — let me grap- 
ple thee fast, lest thou trip, old Triptolemus — ha, ha, ha !” 

So saying, the portly though weather-beaten hulk ot 
the Udaller sailed off like a man-of-war that had braved 
a hundred gales, having his guest in tow like a recent 
prize. The greater part of the revellers followed their 
leader with loud jubilee, although there were several 
stanch topers, who, taking the option left them by the 
Udaller, remained behind to relieve the Jolly Mariner of 
a fresh cargo, amidst many a pledge to the health of their 
absent landlord, and to the prosperity of his roof-tree, 
with whatsoever other wishes of kindness could be de- 
vised, as an apology for another pint-bumper of noble 
punch. 

The rest soon thronged the dancing-room, an apart 
ment which partook of the simplicity of the time and of 
the country. Drawing-rooms and saloons were then un- 
known in Scotland, save in the houses of the nobility, and 
of course absolutely so in Zetland ; but a long, low, 
anomalous store-room, sometimes used for the deposita- 
tion of merchandize, sometimes for putting aside lumber, 
and a thousand other purposes, was well known to all the 
youth of Dunrossness, and of many a district be- 
sides, as the scene of the merry dance, which was sus- 
tained with so much glee when Magnus Troil gave his 
frequent feasts. 

The first appearance of this ball-room might have 
shocked a fashionable party, assembled for the quadrille 
or the waltz. Low as we have stated the apartment to 


THE PIRATE. 


m 


be, it was but imperfectly illuminated by lamps, candles^ 
ship-lanterns, and a variety of other candelabra, which 
served to throw a dusky light upon the floor, and upon 
the heaps of merchandize and miscellaneous articles which 
were piled around ; some of them stores for the winter ; 
some, goods destined for exportation- 5 some, the tribute 
of Neptune, paid at the expense of shipwrecked vessels, 
whose owners were unknown ; some, articles of barter 
received by the proprietor, who, like most others at the 
period, was somewhat of a merchant as well as a land- 
holder, in exchange for the fish, and other articles, the 
produce of his estate. All these, with the chests, boxes, 
casks, he. which contained them, had been drawn aside, 
and piled one above the other, in order to give room for 
the dancers, who, light and lively as if they had occupied 
the most splendid saloon in the parish of St. James’s, ex- 
ecuted their national dances with equal grace and activity. 

The group of old men who looked on, bore no incon- 
siderable resemblance to a party of aged tritons, engaged 
in beholding the sports of the sea-nymphs ; so hard a 
look had most of them acquired by contending with the 
elements, and so much did the shaggy hair and beards, 
which many of them cultivated after the ancient Norwe- 
gian fashion, give their heads the character of these sup- 
posed natives of the deep. The young people, on the 
other hand, were uncommonly handsome, tall, well-made, 
and shapely ; the men with long fair hair, and, until broken 
by the weather, a fresh ruddy complexion, which, in the 
females, was softened into a bloom of infinite delicacy. 
Their natural good ear for music qualified them to second 
to the utmost the exertions of a band, whose strains were 
by no means contemptible ; while the elders, who stood 
around, or sat quiet upon the old sea-chests, which served 
for chairs, criticised the dancers, as they compared their 
execution with their own exertions in former days ; or, 
warmed by the cup and flagon, which continued to cir- 
culate among them, snapped their fingers, and beat time 
with their feet to the music. 


184 


THE PIRATE. 


Mordaunt looked upon this scene of un iversal mirth 
with the painful recollection, that he, thrust aside from 
his pre-eminence, no longer exercised the important duties 
of chief of the dancers, or office of leader of the revels, 
which had been assigned to the stranger Cleveland. 
Anxious, however, to suppress the feelings of his own 
disappointment, which he felt it was neither wise to en- 
tertain nor manly to display, he approached his fair neigh- 
bours, to whom he had been so acceptable at table, with 
the purpose of inviting one of them to become his partner 
in the dance. But the awfully ancient old lady, even the 
Lady Glowrowrum, who had only tolerated the exuber- 
ance of her nieces’ mirth during the time of dinner, be- 
cause her situation rendered it then impossible for her to 
interfere, was not disposed to permit the apprehended 
renewal of the intimacy implied in Mertoun’s invitation. 
She therefore took upon herself, in the name of her two 
nieces, who sat pouting beside her in displeased silence, 
to inform Mordaunt, after thanking him for his civility, 
that the hands of her nieces were engaged for that even- 
ing ; and, as he continued to watch the party at a little 
distance, he had an opportunity of being convinced that 
the alleged engagement was a mere apology to get rid of 
him, wffien he saw the two good-humoured sisters join the 
dance, under the auspices of the next young men who 
asked their hands. Incensed at so marked a slight, and 
unwilling to expose himself to another, Mordaunt Mertoun 
drew back from the circle of dancers, shrowded himself 
amongst the mass of inferior persons who crowded into 
the bottom of the room as spectators, and there, conceal 
ed from the observation of others, digested his own mor- 
tification as well as he could — that is to say, very ill — • 
and with all the philosophy of his age — ihat is to say, with 
none at all. 


THE PIRATE 


J85 


CHAPTER XV 

A torch for me — ^let wantons, light of teatl, 

Tickle the ijiseless rushes with their hesls : 
l or I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase— 
ril be a candle-holder, and look on. 

Romeo ana Juliet. 


The youth, says the moralist Johnson, cares not for 
the boy’s hobby-horse, nor the man for the youth’s mis- 
tress ; and therefore the distress of Mordaunt Mertoun, 
when excluded from the merry dance, may seem trifling 
to many of my readers, who would, nevertheless, think 
they did well to be angry if deposed from their usual 
place in an assembly of a different kind. There lacked 
not amusement, however, for those whom the dance did 
not suit, or who were not happy enough to find partners 
lo their liking. Halcro, now completely in his element, 
had assembled round him an audience, to whom he was 
declaiming his poetry with all the enthusiasm of glorious 
John himself, and receiving in return the usual degree ot 
applause allowed to minstrels who recite their own rhymes 
— so long at least as the author is within hearing of the 
criticism. Halcro’s poetry might indeed have interested 
the antiquary as well as the admirer of the Muses, for 
several of his pieces were translations or imitations from 
the Scaldic sagas, which continued to be sung by the fish- 
ermen of those islands even until a very late period ; in- 
somuch, that when Gray’s poems first found their way to 
Orkney, the old people recognized at once, in the ode ol 
the “ Fatal Sisters,” the Runic rhymes which had amus- 
ed or terrified their infancy under the title of the Magi- 
cians, and which the fishers of North Ronaldshaw, and 
other remote isles, used still to sing when asked for a 
Norse ditty 

VOL. I. 


586 


THE PIRATE-. 


✓ 


Half listening, half lost in his own reflections, Mordaunt 
jVIertoun stood near the door of the apartment, and in the 
outer ring of the little circle formed around old Halcro, 
while the bard chanted to a low, wild, monotonous air, 
varied only by the efforts of the singer to give interest and 
emphasis to particular passages,, the following imitation of 
a Northern war-song : 

©:ije of fl^avoVis ?^atfauer> 

The sun is rising dimly red, 

The wind is wailing low and dread ; 

From his cliff the eagle sallies, 

Leaves the wolf his darksome valleys ; 

In the midstlhe ravens hover, 

Peep the wild-dogs from the cover. 

Screaming, croaking, baying, yelling. 

Each in his wild accents telling, 

** Soon we feast on dead and dying, 

Fair-hairid Harold’s flag is flying.” 

Many a crest in air is streaming. 

Many a helmet darkly gleaming. 

Many an arm the axe uprears. 

Doom’d to hew the wood of spears. 

All along the crowded ranks. 

Horses neigh and armour clanks ; 

Chiefs are shouting, clarions ringing, 

Louder still the bard is singing. 

Gather, footmen, — gather, horsemen. 

To the field, ye valiant Norsemen ! 

** Halt ye not for food or slumber. 

View not vantage, count not number ; 

Jolly reapers, forward still ; 

Grow the crop on vale or hill. 

Thick or scatter’d, stiff or lithe, 

It shall down before the scythe. 

Forward with your sickles bright. 

Reap the harvest of the fight — 

Onward, footmen, — onward, horsemen 
To the charge, ye gallant Norsemen ! 


THE PIRATE. 


187 


" Fatal choosers of the slaughter, 

O’er you hovers Odin’s daughter ; 

Hear the voice she spreads before ye,— 
Victory, and wealth, and glory ; 

Or old Valhalla’s roaring hail, i 
Her ever-circling mead and ale, 

Where for eternity unite 
The joys of wassail and of fight. 
Headlong forward, foot and horsemen, 
Chcirge and fight, and die like Norsemen 


“ The poor unhappy blinded heathens said Triptol- 
emus, with a sigh deep enough for a groan ; ‘ they speak 
of their eternal cups of ale, and I question if they kend 
how to manage a croft land of grain !” 

“ The cleverer fellows they, neighbour Yellowley,” 
answered the poet, “ if they made ale without barley.” 

“ Barley ! — alack-a-day !” replied the more accurate 
agriculturist, “ who ever heard of barley in these parts } 
Bear, my dearest friend, bear is all they have, and won- 
derment it is to me that they ever see an awn of it. Ye 
scart the land with a bit thing ye ca’ a pleugh — ^ye might 
as weel give it a ritt with the teeth of a redding-kame. 
O, to see the sock, and the heel, and the sole-clout of a 
real steady Scottish pleugh, with a chield like a Samson 
between the stilts, laying a weight on them would keep 
down a mountain ; twa stately owsen, and as many broad- 
breasted horse in the traces, going through soil and till, 
and leaving a fur in the ground would carry off water like 
a causeyed syver ! They that have seen a sight like that, 
have seen something to crack about in another sort, than 
those unhappy auld-warld stories of war and slaughter, of 
which the land has seen even but too mickle, for a’ your 
singing and soughing awa in praise of such blood-thirstv 
doings, Maister Claud Halcro.” 

“ It is a heresy,” said the animated little poet, bridling 
and drawing himself up, as if the whole defence of the 
Orcadian Archipelago rested on his single arm — ‘‘ It is 
a heresy so much as to name one’s native country, if a 
man is not prepared when and how to defend himself — 


188 


THE PIRATE. 


ay, and to annoy another. The time has beer that if we 
made not good ale and aquavitae, vve knew well enough 
where to find that which was ready made to our hand ; 
but now the descendants of Sea-kings and Champions, 
and Berserkars, are become as incapable of using their 
swords, as if they were so many women. Ye may praise 
them for a strong pull on an oar, or a sure foot on a sker- 
ry ; but what else could glorious John himself say of ye, 
my good Hialtlanders, that any man would listen to 

Spoken like an angel, most noble poet !” said Cleve- 
land, who, during an interval of the dance, stood near 
the party in which this conversation was held. “ The 
old champions you talked to us about yesternight, were 
the men to make a harp ring — gallant fellows, that were 
friends to the sea, and enemies to all that sailed on it. 
Their ships, I suppose, were clumsy enough ; but if it is 
true that they went upon the account as far as the Levant, 
I scarce believe that ever better fellows unloosed a top 
sail.” 

“ Ay,” replied Halcro, “ there you spoke them right. 
In those days none could call their life and means of liv- 
ing their own, unless they dwelt twenty miles out of siglit 
of the blue sea. Why, they had public prayers put up 
in every church in Europe, for deliverance from the ire 
of the Northmen. In France and England, ay, and in 
Scotland too, for as high as they hold their head now-a- 
days, there was not a bay or a haven, but it was freer to 
our forefathers than to the poor devils of natives ; and 
now we cannot, forsooth, so much as grow our own bar- 
ley without Scottish help — (here he darted a sarcastic 
glance at the factor) — I would I saw the time we were to 
measure arms with them again !” 

“ Spoken like a hero once more !” said Cleveland. 

“ Ah !” continued the little bard, “ I would it were 
possible to see our barks, once the water-dragons of the 
world, swimming with the black raven standard waving 
at the topmast, and their decks glimmering with arms, in- 
stead of being heaped up with stock-fish — winning with 
our fearless hands what the niggard soil denies— -paying 


THE PIRATE. 


189 


back all old scorn and modern injury — reaping where we 
never sowed, and felling what we never planted — living 
and laughing through the world, and smiling when we 
were summoned to quit it !” 

So spoke Claud Halcro, in no serious, or at least most 
certainly in no sober mood, his brain, (never the most 
stable) whizzing under the influence of fifty well-remem- 
bered sagas, besides five bumpers of usquebaugh and 
brandy 5 and Cleveland, between jest and earnest, clap- 
ped him on the shoulder, and again repeated, “ Spoken 
like a hero I” 

‘‘ Spoken like a fool, I think,” said Magnus Troil, 
whose attention had been also attracted by the vehemence 
of the little bard — “ where would you cruize upon, or 
against whom ? — we are all subjects of one realm, I trow, 
and I would have you to remember, that your voyage 
may bring up at Execution-dock. — I like not the Scots — 
no offence, Mr. Yellowley — that is, I would like them 
well enough if they would stay quiet in their own land, 
and leave us at peace with our own people, and manners, 
and fashions ; and if they would but abide there till I 
went to harry them like a mad old Berserkar, I would 
leave them in peace till the day of judgment. With what 
the sea sends us, and the land lends us, as the proverb 
says, and a set of honest neighbourly folks to help us to 
consume it, so help me Saint Magnus, as I think we are 
even but too happy !” 

‘‘ I know what war is,” said an old man, “ and I would 
as soon sail through Sumburgh-roost in a cockle-shefl, or 
in a worse loom, as I would venture there again.” 

“ And, pray, what wars knew your valour ?” said Hal- 
cro, who, though forbearing to contradict his landlord 
from a sense of respect, was not a whit inclined to aban- 
don his argument to any meaner authority. 

“ I was pressed,” answered the old Triton, “ to serve 
under Montrose, when he came here about the sixteen 
hundred and fifty-one, and carried a sort of us off, will 
ye nill ye, to get our throats cut in the wilds of Strath- 
navern,~^I shall never forget it — we had been hard put to 


190 


THE PIRATE. 


It for victuals — what would I have given for a luncheon of 
Burgh-Westra beef — ay, or a mess of sour sillocks ? — 
When our Highlandmen brought in a dainty drove of ky- 
loes, much ceremony there was not, for we shot and felled, 
and flayed, and roasted, and broiled, as it came to every 
man’s hand ; till, just as our beards were at the greasiest, 
we heard — God preserve us — a tramp of horse, then twa or 
three drapping shots, — then came a full salvo, — and then, 
when the officers were crying on us to stand, and maist 
of us looking which way we might run away, down they 
broke, horse and foot, with old John Urry, or Hurryf^or 
whatever they called him — he hurried us that day, and 
worried us to boot — and we began to fall as thick as the 
Btots that we were felling five minutes before.” 

“ And Montrose,” said the soft voice of the graceful 
Minna ; “ what became of Montrose, or how looked he ?” 

‘‘ Like a lion with the hunters before him,” answered 
die old gentleman ; “ but I looked not twice his way, for 
my own lay right over the hill.” 

“ And so you left him ?” said Minna, in a tone of the 
leepest contempt. 

. “ It was no fault of mine. Mistress Minna,” answered 
the old man, somewhat out of countenance ; “ but I was 
there with no choice of my own ; and, besides, what good 
could I have done ? — all the rest were running like sheep, 
and why should I have staid ?” 

“ You might have died with him,” said Minna. 

“ And lived with him to all eternity, in immortal verse •” 
_ added Claud Halcro. 

‘‘ I thank you, mistress Minna,” replied the plain-deal- 
ing Zetlander ; “ and I thank you, my old friend Claud ; 
— but I would rather drink both your healths in this good 
bicker of ale, like a living man as I am, than that you 
should be making songs in mine honour, for having died 
forty or fifty years agone. But what signified it ? — run 
or fight, ’twas all one ; — they took Montrose, poor fellow, 
for all his doughty deeds, and they took me that did no 
doughty deeds at all ; and they hanged him, poor man, 
and as for me ” 


THE PIRATE. 


191 


1 trust in Heaven they flogged and pickled you,” 
said Cleveiand, worn out of patience with the dull narra- 
tive of the peaceful Zetlander’s poltroonery, of which he 
seemed so wondrous little ashamed. 

‘‘ Flog horses, and pickle beef,” said Magnus; “ Why, 
you have not the vanity to think, that, with all your quar- 
ter-deck airs, you will make poor old neighbour Haagen 
ashamed that he was not killed some scores of years since ? 
You have looked on death yourself, my doughty young 
friend, but it was with the eyes of a young man who 
wishes to be thought of ; but we are a peaceful people, — 
peaceful, that is, as long as any one should be peaceful, 
and that is till some one has the impudence to wrong us, 
or our neighbours ; and then, perhaps, they may not find 
our northern blood much cooler in our veins tlian was that 
of the old Scandinavians that gave us our names and lin- 
eage. — Get ye along, get ye along to the sword-dance, 
that the strangers that* are amongst us may see that our 
hands and our weapons are not altogether unacquainted 
even yet.”^^ 

A dozen cutlasses, selected hastily from an old arm- 
chest, and whose rusted hue bespoke how seldom they 
left the sheath, armed the same number of young Zet- 
landers, with whom mingled six maidens, led by Minna 
Troil ; and the minstrelsy instantly commenced a tune 
appropriate to the ancient Norwegian war-dance, the evo- 
lutions of which are perhaps still practised in those remote 
islands. 

The first movement was graceful and majestic, the 
youths holding their swords erect, and without much ges- 
ture ; but the tune, and the corresponding motions of the 
dancers, became gradually more and more rapid, — they 
clashed their swords together, in measured time, with a 
spirit which gave the exercise a dangerous appearance in 
the eye of the spectator, though the firmness, justice, and 
accuracy, with which the dancers kept time with the stroke 
of their weapons, did, in truth, ensure its safety. The 
most singular part of the exhibition was the courage ex- 
hibited by the female performers, who now, surrounded 


192 


THE PIRATE. 


by the swordsmen, seemed like the Sabine maidens in the 
hands of their Roman lovers ; now, moving under the 
arch of steel which the young men had formed, by cross- 
ing their weapons over the heads of their fair partners, 
resembled the band of Amazons when they first joined 
in the Pyrrhic dance with the followers of Theseus. But 
by far the most striking and appropriate figure was that 
of Minna Troil, whom Halcro had long since entitled the 
Queen of Swords, and who, indeed, moved amidst the 
swordsmen with an air, which seemed to hold all the 
drawn blades as the proper accompaniments of her person, 
and the implements of her pleasure. And when the 
mazes of the dance became more intricate, when the close 
and continuous clash of the weapons made some of her 
companions shrink, and show signs of fear, her cheek, 
her lip, and her eye, seemed rather to announce, that, at 
die moment when the weapons flashed fastest, and rung 
sharpest around her, she was most completely self-pos- 
sessed, and in her own element. Last of all, when the 
music had ceased, and she remained for an instant upon 
the floor by herself, as the rule of the dance required, 
the sw'ordsmen and maidens, who departed from around 
lier, seemed the guards and the train of some princess, 
who, dismissed by her signal, were leaving her for a time 
to solitude. Her own look and attitude, wrapped, as she 
probably was, in some vision of the imagination, corres- 
ponded admirably with the ideal dignity which the specta- 
tors ascribed to her ; but, almost immediately recollecting 
herself, she blushed, as if conscious she had been, though 
but for an instant, the object of undivided attention, and 
gave her hand gracefully to Cleveland, who, though he 
had not joined in the dance, assumed the duty of con- 
ducting her to her seat. 

As they passed, Mordaunt Mertoun might observe that 
Cleveland whispered into Minna’s ear, and that her brief 
reply was accompanied with even more discomposure of 
^•-ountenance than she had manifested when encountering 
the gaze of the whole assembly. Mordaunt’s suspicions 
were strongly awakened bv what he observed, for he knew 


THE PIRATE. 


193 


Minna’s character well, and with what equanimity and 
indifference she was in the custom of receiving the usual 
(.ompliments and gallantries with which her beauty and 
her situation rendered her sufficiently familiar. 

“ Can it be possible she really loves this stranger ?” 
was the unpleasant thought that instantly shot across Mor- 
daunt’s mind ; — “ And if she does, what is my interest 
in the matter?” was the second ; and which was quickly 
followed by the reflection, that though he claimed no in- 
terest at any time but as a friend, and though that interest 
was now withdrawn, he was still, in consideration of their 
former intimacy, entitled both to be sorry and angry at 
her for throwing away her affections on one he judged 
unworthy of her. In this process of reasoning, it is prob- 
able that a little mortified vanity, or some indescribable 
shade of selfish regret, might be endeavouring to assume 
the disguise of disinterested generosity ; but there is so 
much of base alloy in our very best (unassisted) thoughts, 
that it is melancholy work to criticise too closely the mo- 
tives of our most worthy actions ; at least we would re- 
commend to every one to let those of his neighbours pass 
current, however narrowly he may examine the purity of 
his own. 

The sword-dance was succeeded by various other spec- 
imens of the same exercise, and by songs, to which the 
singers lent their whole soul, while the audience were sure, 
as occasion offered, to unite in some favourite chorus. It 
is upon such occasions that music, though of a simple and 
even rude character, finds its natural empire oyer tJie 
generous bosom, and produces that strong excitement 
which cannot be attained by the most learned compositions 
of the first masters, which are caviare to the common ear, 
although, doubtless, they afford a delight, exquisite in its 
kind, to those whose natural capacity and education have 
enabled them to comprehend and relish those difficult and 
complicated combinations of harmony. 

It was about midnight when a knocking at the door ot 
the mansion, with the sound of the Gue and the LangspieL 

VOL. I. 


194 


THE PIRATE. 


announced, by their tinkling chime, the arrival of fresh 
revellers, to whom, according to the hospitable custom ol 
the country, the apartments were instantly thrown open 


CHAPTER XVL 


My mind misgives, 

Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars, 

Shall bitterly begin his fearful date 
With tliis night's revels 

Romeo and Juliet. 


The new-comers were, according to the frequent cus- 
tom of such frolickers all over the world, disguised in a 
sort of masking habits, and- designed to represent the 
Tritons and Mermaids, with whom ancient tradition and 
popular belief have peopled the northern seas. The for- 
mer, called by Zetlanders of that time, Shoupeltins, were 
represented by young men grotesquely habited, with false 
hair, and beards made of flax, and chaplets composed of 
sea-ware interwoven with shells, and other- marine pro- 
ductions, vdth which also were decorated their light-blue 
or greenish mantles of wadmaal, repeatedly before-men- 
tioned. They had fish-spears, and other emblems of 
their assumed quality, ' amongst which the classical taste 
oftClaud Halcro, by whom the mask was arranged, had 
not forgotten the conch-shells, which were stoutly and 
hoarsely winded, from time to time, by one or two of the 
aquatic deities, to the great, annoyance of all who stood 
near them. 

The Nereids and Water-nymphs who attended on this 
occasion, displayed, as usual, a little more taste and orna- 
ment than was to be seen amongst their male attendants. 
Fantastic garments of green silk, and other materials of 
superior cost and fashion, had been contrived, so as to 
imitate their idea of the inhabitants of the waters, and, 


THE PIRA.TE, 


195 


at the same time, to show the shape and features of the 
fair wearers to the best advantage. The bracelets and 
shells, which adorned the neck, arms, and ankles of the 
pretty Mermaidens, were, in some cases, intermixed with 
real pearls ; and the appearance, upon the whole, was 
such as might have done no discredit to the court of Arn- 
phitrite, especially when the long bright locks, blue eyes, 
fair complexions, and pleasing features of the maidens of 
Thule, were taken into consideration. We do not indeed 
pretend to aver, that any of these seeming Mermaids had 
so accurately imitated the real syren, as commentators 
have supposed those attendant on Cleopatra did, who, 
adopting the fish’s train of their original, were able, nev- 
ertheless, to make their “ bends,” or “ ends,” (said com- 
mentators cannot tell which,) “ adornings.”* Indeed, 
had they not left their extremities in their natural state, it 
would have been impossible for the Zetland syrens to 
have executed the very pretty dance with which they re- 
warded the company, for the ready admission which had 
been granted to them. 

It was soon discovered that these maskers were no 
strangers, but a part of the guests, who, stealing out a 
little time before, had thus disguised themselves, in order 
to give variety to the mirth of the evening. The muse 
of Claud Halcro, always active on such occasions, had 
supplied them with an appropriate song, of which we may 
give the following specimen. The song was alternate be- 
twixt a Nereid or Mermaid, and a Merman or Triton — the 
males and females on either part forming a semi-chorus, 
vvliich accompanied and bore burden to the principal 
singer. 

1 . 


MERMAID. 

Fathoms deep beneath the wave, 
Stringing beads of glistering pearl. 
Singing the achievements brave 
Of many an old Norwegian earl ; 


See some adim.-ible discussion on this pass<ige, in the V ariorum Shaki^eara 


196 


THE PIRATE 


Dwelling’ where the tempest’s raviug 
Falls as light upon our ear, 

As the sigh of lover, craving 
Pity from his lady dear. 

Children of wild Thule, we. 

From the deep caves of the sea. 

As the lark springs from the lea, 

Hither come to share your glee. 

II. 

MERMAN. 

From reining of tlie- water-horse^ 

That bounded till the waves were fi>amiiij^ 

Watching the infant tempest’s course. 

Chasing the sea-snake in his roaming ; 

From winding charge-notes on the shell. 

When the huge whale and sword-fish duel, 

Or tolling shroudless seamen’s knell. 

When the winds and waves are cruel ; 

Children of wild Thule, we 

Have plough’d such furrows on the sea, 

As the steer draws on the lea. 

And hither we come to share your glee. 

III. 

MERMAIDS AND MERMEN. 

We heard you in our twilight caves, 

A hundred fathom deep below. 

For notes of joy can pierce the waves, 

That drown each sound of walr and woe. 

Those who dwell beneath the sea 
Love the sons of Thule well ; 

Thus, to aid your mirth, bring w'e 
Dance, and song, and sounding shell. 

Children of dark Thule, know. 

Those who dwell by haaf and voe. 

Where your daring shallops row. 

Come to share the festal show. 

The final chorus was borne by the whole voices, except- 
ing those carrying the conch-shells, who had been trained 
to blow them in a sort of rude accompaniment, which had 
a good effect. The poetry, as well as the perfornTiance 


THE PIRATE. 


197 


of the maskers, received great applause from all who pre- 
tended to be judges of such matters ; but above all, from 
Triptolemus Yellowley, who, his ear having cauglit the 
agricultural sounds of plough and furrow, and his brain 
being so well drenched, that it could only construe the 
words in their most literal acceptation, declared roundly, 
and called Mordaunt to bear witness, that, though it was 
a shame to waste so much good lint as went to form the 
Tritons’ beards and periwigs, the song contained the only 
words of comrnoi^ sense which he had heard all that 
long day. 

But Mordaunt had no time to answer the appeal, being 
engaged in attending with the utmost vigilance to the mo- 
tions of one of the female maskers, who had given him a 
private signal as they entered, which induced him, though 
uncertain who she might prove to be, to expect some com- 
munication from her of importance. The siren who had 
so boldly touched his arm, and had accompanied the ges- 
ture with an expression of eye which bespoke his atten- 
tion, was disguised with a good deal more care than her 
sister-maskers, her mantle being loose, and wide enough 
to conceal her shape completely, and her face Iridden be- 
neath a silk mask. He observed that she gradually de- 
tached herself from the rest of the maskers, and at length 
placed herself, as if for the advantage of the air, near the 
door of a chamber which remained open, looked earnestly 
at him again, and then taking an opportunity, when the 
attention of the company was fixed upon the rest of he> 
party, she left the apartment. 

Mordaunt did not hesitate instantly to follow his mysteri- 
ous guide, for such we may term the masker, as she paus- 
ed to let him see the direction she was about to take, and 
then walked .swiftly towards the shore of the voe, or salt- 
water lake, now lying full before them, its small summer- 
wave« glistening and rippling under the influence of a 
broad moonlight, which, added to the strong twilight ol 
those regions during the summer solstice, left no reasoii 
to regrert the absence of the sun, the path of whose setting 

VOL. I. 


198 


THE rillATE. 


was still visible on the vyav es of the west, while the hori 
zon on the east side was already beginning to glimmei 
with the lights of dawn. 

Mordaunt had therefore no difficulty in keeping sight of 
his disguised guide, as she tripped it over height and hol- 
low to the sea-side, and, winding among the rocks, led the 
way to the spot where his own labours, during the time of 
his former intimacy at Burgh-Westra, had constructed a 
sheltered and solitary seat, where the daughters of IMag- 
nus were accustomed to spend, when the weather was 
suitable, a good deal of their time. Here, then, was to 
be the place of explanation ; for the masker stopped, and, 
after a moment’s hesitation, sat down on the rustic settle. 
But from the lips of whom was he to receive it ? Norna 
had first occurred to him, but her tall figure and slow ma- 
jestic step were entirely different from the size and gait of 
the more fiiiry-formed siren, who had preceded him with 
as light a trip as if she had been a real Nereid, who, hav- 
ing remained too late upon the shore, was, under the 
dread of Amphitrite’s displeasure, hastening to regain her 
native element. Since it was not Norna, it could be only, 
he thought, Brenda, who thus singled him out ; and when 
she had seated herself upon the bench, and taken the 
mask from her face, Brenda it accordingly proved to be 
Mordaunt had certainly done nothing to make him dread 
her presence ; and yet, such is the influence of bashful- 
ness over the ingenuous youth of both sexes, that he ex- 
perienced all the embarrassment of one who finds himself 
unexpectedly placed before a person who is justly offend- 
ed with him. Brenda felt no less embarrassment ; but 
as she had sought this interview, and was sensible it must 
be a brief one, she was compelled, in spite of herself, to 
begin the conversation. 

Mordaunt,” she said, with a hesitating voice ; then 
correcting herself, she proceeded — “ You must be sur- 
f)rised, Mr. Mertoun, that I should have taken this un- 
common freedom.” 

“ It was not till this morning, Brenda,” replied Mor- 
•iaunt, “ that any mark of friendship or intimacy from you 


THE riRATE. 


199 


nr from your sister could have surprised me. I am far 
more astonished that you should shun me without reason 
for so many hours, than that you should now allow me an 
interview. In the name of Heaven, Brenda, in what 
have I offended you ? or why are we on these unusual 
terms ?” 

“ May it not be enough to say,” replied Brenda, look- 
ing downward, “ that it is my father’s pleasure ?” 

“ No, it is not enough,” returned Mertoun. “ Your 
father cannot have so suddenly altered his whole thoughts 
of me, and his whole actions towards me, without acting 
under the influence of some strong delusion. I ask you 
but to explain of what nature it is ; for I will be content- 
ed to be lower in your esteem than the meanest hind in 
these islands, if I cannot- show that his change of opinion 
is only grounded upon some infamous deception, or some 
extraordinary mistake.” 

“ It may be so,” said Brenda — ‘‘ I hope it is so — that 
I do hope it is so, my desire to see you thus in private 
may well prove to you. But it is difficult — in short, it is 
impossible for me to explain to you the cause of my 
father’s resentment. Norna has spoken with him concern- 
ing it boldly, and I fear they parted in displeasure ; and 
you well know no light matter could cause that.” 

“ I have observed,” said Mordaunt, “ that your father 
is most attentive to Norna’s counsel, and more complai- 
sant to her peculiarities than to those of others — this I 
have observed, though he is no willing believer in the su- 
pernatural qualities to which she lays claim.” 

“ They are related distantly,” answered Brenda, “ and 
w’ere friends in youth — nay, as I have heard, it was once 
supposed they would have been married ; but Norna’s 
peculiarities showed themselves immediately on her fa- 
ther’s death, and there was an end of that matter, if ever 
there was any thing in it. But it is certain my father re- 
gards her with much interest ; and it is, I fear, a sign 
how deeply his prejudices respecting you must be root- 
ed, since they have in some degree quarrelled on youi 
account.” 


200 


THE PIRATE. 


‘ Now, blessings upon you, Brenda, that you have 
called them prejudices,” said Mertoun, warmly and hasti* 
iy — “ a thousand blessings on you ! You were ever gen 
ile-hearted — ^you could not have maintained even the 
show of unkindness long.” 

“ It was indeed but a show,” said Brenda, softening 
gradually into the familiar tone in which they had con- 
versed from infancy ; “ I could never think, Mordaunt — 
never, that is, seriously believe, that you could say aught 
unkind of Minna or of me.” 

“And who dares to say I have ?” said Mordaunt, giv- 
ing way to the natural impetuosity of his disposition — 
“ Who dares to say that I have, and ventures at the same 
time to hope that I will suffer his tongue to remain in 
safety betwixt his jaws ? By Saint Magnus the Martyr, I 
will feed the hawks with it !” 

“ Nay, now,” said Brenda, “ your anger only terrifies 
me, and will force me to leave you.” 

“ Leave me,” said he, “ without telling me either the 
calumny, or the name of the villanous calumniator I” 

“ O, there are more than one,” answered Brenda, 
“ that have. possessed my father with an opinion — which 
I cannot myself tell you — but there are more than one 
who say ” 

“ Were they hundreds, Brenda, I will do no less to 
them than I have said — Sacred Martyr ! — ^to accuse me 
of speaking unkindly of those whom I most respected and 
valued under Heaven — I will back to the apartment this 
instant, and your father shall do me right before all the 
world.” 

“ Do not go, for the love of Heaven !” said Brenda ; 
“ do not go, as you would not render me the most unhap- 
py wretch in existence !” 

“ Tell me then, at least, if I guess aright,” said Mor- 
iaunt, “ when I name this Cleveland for one of those 
who have slandered me ?” 

“ No, no,” said Brenda, vehemently, “ you run from 
one error into another more dangerous. You say you 
are my friend ; — I am willing to be yours : — ^be but still 


THE PIRATE. 


201 


for a moment, and hear what I have to say ; — our inter- 
view has lasted but too long already, and every additional 
moment brings additional danger with it.” 

“Tell me then,” said Mertoun, much softened by the 
poor girl’s extreme apprehension and distress, “ what it 
is that you require of me, and believe me, it is impossi- 
ble for you to ask aught that I will not do my very utter- 
most to comply with.” 

“ Well then, — this Captain,” said Brenda, “ this Cleve- 
land ” 

“ I knew it, by Heaven !” said Mordaunt ; “ my mind 
assured me that that fellow was, in one way or other, at 
the bottom of all this mischief and misunderstanding!” 

“ If you cannot be silent, and patient, for an instant,” 
replied Brenda, “ I must instantly quit you ; what I 
meant to say had no relation to you, but to another, — in 
one word, to my sister Minna. I have nothing to say 
concerning her dislike to you, but an anxious tale to tell 
concerning his attention to her.” 

“ It is obvious, striking, and marked,” said Mordaunt ; 
“ and, unless my eyes deceive me, it is received as wel- 
come, if, indeed, it is not returned.” 

“ That is the very cause of niy fear,” said Brenda. 
“ I, too, was struck with the external appearance, frank 
manners, and romantic conversation of this man.” 

“ His appearance !” said Mordaunt 5 “ he is stout and 
well-featured enough, to be sure ; but, as old Sinclair of 
Quendale said to the Spanish admiral, ‘ Farcie on his 
lace I I have seen many a fairer hang on tne Borough- 
moor.’ From his manners, he might be captain of a priva- 
teer 5 and by his conversation, the trumpeter to his own 
puppet-show 5 for he speaks of little else than his own 
exploits.” 

“ You are mistaken,” answered Brenda ; “ he speaks 
but too well on all that he has seen and learned ; besides, 
he has really been in many distant countries, and in many 
gallant actions, and he can tell them with as much spirit 
as modesty. You would think you saw the flash and 
heard the report of the guns. And he has other tones 


202 


THE riRATB. 


of talking too — about the delightful trees and fruits of 
distant climates; and how the people wear no dress 
through the whole year, half so warm as our summer 
gowns, and, indeed, put on little except cambric and 
muslin.’’ 

“ Upon my word, Brenda, he does seem to understand 
tlie business of amusing young ladies,” replied Mor- 
daunt.” 

“ He does, indeed,” said Brenda, with great simplic- 
ity. ‘‘ I assure you that, at first, I liked him better than 
Minna did ; and yet, though she is so much cleverer than 
I am, I know more of the world than she does ; for I have 
seen more of cities, having been once at Kirkwall ; be- 
sides that I was thrice at Lerwick, when the Dutch ships 
were there, and so I should not be very easily deceived 
in people.” 

“ And pray, Brenda,” said Mertoun, “ what was it 
that made you think less favourably of this young fellow, 
who seems to be so captivating ?” 

‘‘ Why,” said Brenda, after a moment’s reflection, at 
first he was much livelier ; and the stories he told were 
not quite so melancholy, or so terrible ; and he laughed 
and danced more.” 

“ And, perhaps, at that time, danced oftener with Bren- 
da than with her sister ?” added Mordaunt. 

“ No, — I am not sure of that,” said Brenda ; “ and 
yet, to speak plain, I could have no suspicion of him at 
all while he was attending quite equally to us both ; for 
you know that then he could have been no more to us 
than yourself, Mordaunt Mertoun, or young Swaraster, or 
any other young man in the islands.” 

“ But why then,” said Mordaunt, “ should you not 
see him, with patience, become acquainted with your sis- 
ter } — He is wealthy, or seems to be so at least. You 
say he is accomplished and pleasant ; — what else would 
you desire in a lover for Minna ?” 

“ Mordaunt, you forget who we are,” said the maiden, 
assuming an air of consequence, wliich sat as gracefully 
upon her simplicity, as did the different tone m which 


THE PIRATE. 


203 


she had spoken hitherto. “ This is a little world of ours, 
this Zetland, inferior perhaps in soil and climate to other 
parts of the earth, at least so strangers say ; but it is our own 
little world, and we, the daughters of Magnus Troil, hold 
a first rank in it. It would, I think, little become us, who 
are descended from Sea-kings and Jarls, to throw our- 
selves away upon a stranger, who comes to our coast, 
like the eider-duck in spring, from we know not whence, 
and may leave it in autumn, to go we know not where.” 

“ And who may yet entice a Zetland golden-eye to 
accompany his migration,” said Mertoun. 

“ I will hear nothing light on such a subject,” replied 
Brenda, indignantly ; “ Minna, like myself, is the daugh- 
ter of Magnus Troil, the friend of strangers, but the Fa- 
ther of Hialtland. He gives them the hospitality they 
need ; but let not the proudest of them think that they 
can, at their pleasure, ally with his house.” 

She said this in a tone of considerable warmth, which 
she instantly softened, as she added, “ No, Mordaunt, 
do not suppose that Minna Troil is capable of so far 
forgetting what she owes to her father and her father’s 
blood, as to think of marrying this Cleveland ; but she 
may lend an ear to him so long as to destroy her future 
happiness. She has that sort of mind, into which some 
feelings sink deeply ; — you remember how Ulla Storlson 
used to go, day by day, to the top of Vosdale-head, to 
look for her lover’s ship that was never to return ? When 
I think of her slow step, her pale cheek, her eye, that 
grew dimmer and dimmer, like the lamp that is half ex- 
tinguished for lack of oil, — ^when I remember the flutter- 
ed look, of something like hope, with which she ascended 
the cliff at morning, and the deep dead despair which 
sat on her forehead when she returned, — when I think 
on all this, can you wonder that I fear for Minna, whose 
heart is formed to entertain, with such deep-rooted fidel- 
ity, any affection that may be implanted in it ?” 

“ I do not wonder,” said Mordaunt, eagerly sympa- 
thizing with the poor girl ; for, besides the tremulous ex- 
pression of her voice, the light could almost show him 


204 


THE PIRATE. 


the tear which trembled in her eye, as she drew the pic-^ 
ture to which her fancy had assimilated her sister, — “ 1 
do not wonder that you should feel and fear whatever 
the purest affection can dictate ; and if you can but point 
out to me in what I can serve your sisterly love, you 
shall find me as ready to venture my life, if necessary, 
as I have been to go out on the crag to get you the eggs 
of the guillemot ; and, believe me, that whatever has 
been told to your father or yourself, of my entertaining 
the slightest thoughts of disrespect or unkindness, is as 
false as a fiend could devise.” 

“ I believe it,” said Brenda, giving him her hand j 
“ I believe it, and my bosom is lighter, now I have re- 
newed my confidence in so old a friend. How you can 
aid us, I know not ; but it was by the advice, I may say 
by the commands, of Norna, that I have ventured to make 
this communication ;* and I almost wonder,” she added, 
as she looked around her, “ that I have had courage 
to carry me through it. At present you know all that I 
can tell you of the risk in which my sister stands. Look 
after this Cleveland — ^beware how you quarrel with him, 
since you must so surely come by the worst with an expe- 
rienced soldier.” 

‘‘ I do not exactly understand,” said the youth, “ how 
that should so surely be. This I know, that with the 
good limbs and good heart that God hath given me, ay, 
and with a good cause to boot — I am little afraid of any 
quarrel which Cleveland can fix upon me.” 

“ Then, if not for your own sake, for Minna’s sake,” 
said Brenda — “ for my father’s — for mine — for all our 
sakes, avoid any strife with him, but be contented to 
watch him, and, if possible to discover who he is, and 
what are his intentions towards us. He has talked of 
going to Orkney, to inquire after the consort with whom 
he sailed ; but day after day, and week after week passes, 
and he goes not ; and while he keeps my father company 
over the bottle, and tells Minna romantic stories of for- 
eign people, and distant wars, in wild and unknown re- 
giois, the time glides on, and the stranger, of whom we 


THE PIRATE. 


205 


know nothing except that he is one, becomes gradually 
closer and more inseparably intimate in our society. — 
And now, farewell. Norna hopes to make your peace 
with my father, and entreats you not to leave Burgh-VVes- 
tra to-morrow, however cold he and my sister may ap- 
pear towards you. I too,” she said, stretching her hand 
towards him, ‘‘ must wear a face of cold friendship as 
towards an unwelcomed visiter, but at heart we are still 
Brenda and Mordaunt. And now separate quickly, for 
we must not be seen together.” 

She stretched her hand to him, but withdrew it in some 
slight confusion, laughing and blushing, when, by a nat- 
ural impulse, he was about to press it to his lips. He 
endeavoured for a moment to detain her, for the inter- 
view had for him a degree of fascination, which, as often 
as he had before been alone with Brenda, he had never 
experienced. But she extricated herself from him, and 
again signing an adieu, and pointing out to him a path 
different from that which she was herself about to take, 
tripped towards the house, and was soon hidden from his 
view by the acclivity. 

Mordaunt stood gazing after her in a state of mind, to 
which, as yet, he had been a stranger. The dubious 
neutral ground between love and friendship may be long 
and safely trodden, until he who stands upon it is sud- 
denly called upon to recognize the authority of the one or 
the other power ; and then it most frequently happens, that 
the party who for years supposed himself only a friend, 
finds himself at once transformed into a lover. That 
such a change in Mordaunt’s feelings should take place 
from this date, although he himself was unable exactly 
^ to distinguish its nature, was to be expected. He found 
himself at once received, with the most unsuspicious 
frankness, into the confidence of a beautiful and fascinat- 
ing young woman, by whom he had, so short a time be- 
fore, imagined himself despised and disliked ; and, if any 
thing could make a change, in itself so surprising and so 
pleasing, yet more intoxicating, it was the guileless and 

VOL. 1. 


206 


THE PIRATE. 


open-hearted simplicity of Brenda, that cast an enchant- 
ment over every thing which she did or said. The scene, 
too, might have had its effect, though there was little 
occasion for its aid. But a fair face looks yet fairer 
under the light of the moon, and a sweet voice sounds 
yet sweeter among the whispering sounds of a summer 
night. Mordaunt, therefore, who had by this time re- 
turned to the house, was disposed to listen with unusual 
patience and complacency to the enthusiastic declama- 
tion pronounced upon moonlight by Claud Halcro, whose 
ecstasies had been awakened on the subject by a short 
turn in the open air, undertaken to qualify the vapours 
of the good liquor, which he had not spared during the 
festival. 

“ The sun, my boy,” he said, “ is every wretched 
labourer’s day-lantern — it comes glaring yonder, out of 
the east, to summon up a whole world to labour and to 
misery ; whereas the merry moon lights all of us to mirth 
and to love.” 

“ And to madness, or she is much belied,” said Mor- 
daunt, by way of saying something. 

“ Let it be so,” answered Halcro, “ so she does not 
turn us melancholy-mad. — My dear young friend, the 
folks of this pains-taking world are far too anxious about 
possessing all their wits, or having them, as they say, 
about them. At least I know I have been often called 
half-witted, and I am sure I have gone through the world 
as well as if I had double the quantity. But stop — 
where was I ? O, touching and concerning the moon — 
why, man, she is the very soul of love and poetry. 1 
question if there was ever a true lover in existence who 
had not got at least as far as ‘ O thou,’ in a sonnet in 
her praise.” 

“ The moon,” said the factor, who was now beginning 
to speak very thick, “ ripens corn, at least the old folk 
said so — and she fills nuts also, whilk is of less matter — 
sparge nuces, pueriy 

“ A fine, a fine,” said the Udaller, who was now in 
his altitudes ; “ the factor speaks Greek — by the bones 


THE PIEATE. 


207 


of my holy name-sake, Saint Magnus, he shall drink off 
the yawl full of punch, unless he gives us a song on the 
spot !” 

“ Too much water drowned the miller,” answered 
Triptolemus. “ My brain has more need of draining 
than of being drenched with more liquor.” 

‘‘ Sing then,” said the despotic landlord, “ for no one 
shall speak any other language here, save honest Norse, 
jolly Dutch, or Danske, or broad Scots, at the least of it. 
So, Eric Scambester, produce the yawl, and fill it to the 
brim, as a charge for demurrage.” 

Ere the vessel could reach the agriculturist, he, seeing 
it under way, and steering towards him by short tacks, 
(for Scambester himself was by this time not over steady 
in his course,) made a desperate effort, and began to sing, 
or rather to croak forth, a Yorkshire harvest-home ballad, 
which his father used to sing when he was a little mellow, 
and which went to the tune of “ Hey Dobbin, away with 
the wagon.” The rueful aspect of the singer, and the 
desperately discordant tones of his voice, formed so de- 
lightful a contrast with the jollity of the words and tune, 
that honest Triptolemus afforded the same sort of amuse- 
ment which a reveller might give, by appearing on a fes- 
tival-day in the holiday-coat of his grandfather. The 
jest concluded the evening, for even the mighty and strong- 
headed Magnus himself had confessed the influence of 
the sleepy god. The guests went off as they best might, 
each to his separate crib and resting place, and in a short 
time the mansion, which was of late so noisy, was hushed 
into perfect silence. 


208 


THE PIRATE. 


CHAPTER XVil. 

They man their boats, and all the young men arm, 

With whatsoever might the monsters harm ; 

Pikes, halberds, spits, and darts, that wound afar 
The tools of peace, and implements of war. 

Now was the time for vigorous lads to show 
What love or honour could incite them to ; — 

A goodly theatre, where rocks are round 
With reverend age and lovely lasses crown'd. 

Battle of the Summer Islands. 

The morning which succeeds such a feast as that oi 
Magnus Troil, usually lacks a little of the zest which sea- 
soned the revels of the preceding day, as the fashionable 
reader may have observed at a public breakfast during 
the race-week in a country town ; for, in what is called 
the best society, these lingering moments are usually 
spent by the r'ompany, each apart in their own dressing- 
rooms. At Liirgh-Westra, it will readily be believed, no 
such space for retirement was afforded ; and the lasses, 
with their paler cheeks, the elder dames, with many a 
wink and yawn, were compelled to meet with their male 
companions, (headachs and all) just three hours after 
they had parted from each other. 

Eric Scambester had done all that man could do to 
supply the full means of diverting the ennui of the morn- 
ing meal. The board groaned with rounds of hung beef, 
made after the fashion of Zetland — with pasties — with bak- 
ed meats — with fish, dressed and cured in every possible 
manner; nay, with the foreign delicacies of tea, coffee, 
and chocolate ; for, as we have already had occasion 
to remark, the situation of these islands made them 
early acquainted with various articles of foreign luxury, 
which were, as yet, but little known in Scotland, where, 
at a much later period than that we write of, one pound 


THE PIRATE 


209 


of green tea was dressed like cabbage, and another con- 
verted into a vegetable sauce for salt beef, by the igno- 
rance of the good housewives to whom they had been 
sent as rare presents. 

Besides these preparations, the table exhibited whatever 
mighty potions are resorted to by hons vivans, under the 
facetious name of a “ hair of the dog that bit you.” 
There was the potent Irish Usquebaugh — right Nantz — 
genuine Schiedamm — Aquavitae from Caithness — and 
Golden Wasser from Hamburgh ; there was rum of for- 
midable antiquity, and cordials from the Leeward Islands. 
After these details, it were needless to mention the stout 
home-brewed ale — the German mum, and Schwartz 
beer — and still more would it be beneath our dignity to 
dwell upon the innumerable sorts of pottage and flummery, 
together with the bland, and various preparations of milk, 
for those who preferred thinner potations. 

No wonder that the sight of so much good cheer awak- 
ened the appetite and raised the spirits of the fatigued 
revellers. The young men began immediately to seek 
out their partners of the preceding evening, and to renew 
the small talk which had driven the night so merrily away ; 
while Magnus, with his stout old Norse kindred, encour- 
aged, by precept and example, those of elder days and 
graver mood, to a substantial flirtation with the good 
things before them. Still, however, there was a long 
period to be filled up before dinner ; for the most pro- 
tracted breakfast cannot well last above an hour ; and it 
was to be feared that Claud Halcro meditated the occu- 
pation of this vacant morning with a formidable recitation 
of his own verses, besides telling, at its full length, the 
whole history of his introduction to glorious John Dry- 
den. But fortune relieved the guests of Burgh-Westra 
from this threatened infliction, by sending them means ol 
amusement peculiarly suited to their taste and habits. 

Most of the guests were using their toothpicks, some 
were beginning to talk of what was to be done next, when, 
wuh haste in his step, fire in his eye, and a harpoon in 

VOL. 1 


210 


THE riRATE. 


his hand, Eric Scambester, came to announce to the com- 
pany, that there was a whale on shore, or nearly so, at 
the throat of the voe ! Then you might have seen such a 
joyous, boisterous, and universal bustle, as only the love 
of sport, so deeply implanted in our nature, can possibly 
inspire. A set of country squires, about to beat for the 
first woodcocks of the season, were a comparison as petty, 
in respect to the glee, as in regard to the importance of 
the object ; the battue, upon a strong cover in Ettrick- 
forest, for the destruction of the foxes ; the insurrection 
of the sportsmen of the Lennox, when one of the duke’s 
■deer gets out from Inch-Mirran ; nay, the joyous rally 
of the fox-chase itself, with all its blithe accompaniments 
of hound and horn, fall infinitely short of the animation 
with which the gallant sons of Thule set off to encounter 
the monster, whom the sea had sent for their amusement 
at so opportune a conjuncture. 

The multifarious stores of Burgh-Westra were rum- 
maged hastily for all sorts of arms, which could be used 
on such an occasion. Harpoons, swords, pikes, and hal- 
berds, fell to the lot of some ; others contented themselves 
with hay-forks, spits, and whatever else could be found, 
that was at once long and sharp. Thus hastily equipped, 
one division, under the command of Captain Cleveland, 
hastened to man the boats which lay in the little haven, 
while the rest of the party hurried by land to the scene 
of action. 

Poor Triptolemus was interrupted in a plan, which he, 
too, had formed against the patience of the Zetlanders, 
and which was to have consisted in a lecture upon the 
agriculture, and the capabilities of the country, by this 
sudden hubbub, which put an end at once to Halcro’s 
poetry, and to his no less formidable prose. It may be 
easily imagined, that he took very little interest in the sport 
which was so suddenly substituted for his lucubrations, 
and he would not even have deigned to have looked upon 
the active scene which was about to take place, had he not 
neen stimulated thereunto by the exhortations of Mistress 
Baby. “ Pit yoursell forward, man,” said that provi- 


THE PIRATE. 


211 


dent person, “ pit yoursell forward — wha kens whare a 
blessing may light ? — they say that a’ men share and share 
eqiials-aquals in the creature’s ulzie, and a pint o’t wad 
be worth siller, to light the cruise in the lang dark nights 
that they speak of. Pit yoursell forward, man — there’s a 
graip to ye — faint heart never wan fair lady — wha kens 
but what when it’s fresh, it may eat weel eneugh and 
spare hutter ?” 

What zeal was added to Triptolemus’s motions, by the 
prospect of eating fresh train-oil, instead of butter, we 
know not ; but, as better might not be, he brandished the 
rural implement (a stable-fork) with which he was armed, 
and went down to wage battle with the whale. 

The situation in which the enemy’s ill fate had placed 
him, was particularly favourable to the enterprize of the 
islanders. A tide of unusual height had carried the ani- 
mal over a large bar of sand, into the voe or creek in 
which he was now lying. So soon as he found the water 
ebbing, he became sensible of his danger, and had made 
desperate efforts to get over the shallow water, where the 
waves broke on the bar ; but hitherto he had rather in- 
jured than mended his condition, having got himself part- 
ly aground, and lying therefore particularly exposed to 
the meditated attack. At this moment the enemy came 
down upon him. The front ranks consisted of the young 
and hardy, armed in the miscellaneous manner we have 
described ; while, to witness and animate their efforts, the 
young women, and the elderly persons of both sexes, 
took their place among the rocks, which overhung the 
scene of action. 

As the boats had to double a little headland, ere they 
opened the mouth of the voe, those who came by land to 
the shores of the inlet, had time to make the necessary 
reconnoissances upon the force and situation of the ene- 
my, on whom they were about to commence a simultane- 
ous attack by land and sea. 

This duty, the stout-hearted and experienced gen 
eral, for so the Udaller might be termed, would 
intrust to no eyes but his own ; and, indeed, bis ex- 
ternal appearance, and his sage conduct, rendered him 
10 


212 


THE pm ATE. 


alike qualified for the command which he enjoyed. Ihs 
gold-laced hat was exchanged for a bear-skin cap, his suit 
of blue broad-cloth, with its scarlet lining, and loops, and 
frogs of bullion, had given place to a red flannel jacket, 
with buttons of black horn, over which he wore a seal- 
skin shirt, curiously seamed and plaited on the bosom, 
such as are used by the Esquimaux, and sometimes by 
the Greenland whale-fishers. Sea-boots of a formidable 
size completed his dress, and in his hand he held a large 
whaling-knife, which he brandished, as if impatient to 
employ it in the operation of Jlinching the huge animal 
which lay before them, — that is, the act of separating its 
flesh from its bones. Upon closer examination, however, 
he was obliged to confess, that the sport to which he had 
conducted his friends, however much it corresponded 
with the magnificent scale of his hospitality, was likely to 
be attended with its own peculiar dangers and difficulties. 

The animal, upwards of sixty feet in length, was lying 
perfectly still, in a deep part of the voe into wdiich it had 
weltered, and where it seemed to await the return of tide, 
of which it was probably assured by instinct. A council 
of experienced harpooners was instantly called, and it 
was agreed that an effort should be made to noose the 
tail of this torpid leviathan, by casting a cable around it, 
to be made fast by anchors to the shore, and thus to se- 
cure against his escape, in case the tide should make be- 
fore they were able to despatch him. Three boats were 
destined to this delicate piece of service, one of which 
the Udaller himself proposed to command, while Cleve- 
land and Mertoun were to direct the two others. This 
being decided, they sat down on the strand, waiting with 
impatience, until the naval part of the force should arrive 
in the voe. It was during this interval, that Triptolemus 
Yellowley, after measuring with his eyes the extraordina- 
ry size of the whale, observed, that in his poor mind, 
-* A wain with six owsen, or with sixty owsen either, if 
they were the owsen of the country, could not drag siccan 
a huge creature from the water where it was now lying 
to the sea-beach.” 


THE PIRATE. 


213 


Trifling as this remark may seem to the reader, it was 
connected with a subject which always fired the blood of 
the old Udaller, who, glancing upon Triptolemus a quick 
and stern look, asked him what the devil it signified, sup- 
posing a hundred oxen could not drag the whale upon the 
beach ? Mr. Yellowley, though not much liking the tone 
with which the question was put, felt that his dignity and 
his profit compelled him to answer as follows : — “ Nay, 
sir — you know yoursell, Maister Magnus Troil, and every 
one knows that knows anything, that whales of siccan 
size as may not be masterfully dragged on shore by the 
instrumentality of one wain with six owsen, are the right 
and property of the Admiral, who is at this time the same 
noble lord who is, moreover, Chamberlain of these isles.” 

‘‘ And I tell you, Mr. Triptolemus Yellowley,” said 
the Udaller, as I would tell your master if he were 
here, that every man who risks his life to bring that fish 
ashore, shall have an equal share and partition, according 
to our ancient and loveable Norse custom and wont ; nay, 
if there is so much as a woman looking on, that will but 
touch the cable, she will be partner with us ; ay, and 
more than all that, if she will but say there is a reason for 
it, we will assign a portion to the babe that is unborn.” 

The strict principle of equity, which dictated ;his last 
arrangement, occasioned laughter among the men, and 
some slight confusion among the women. The factor, 
however, thought it shame to be so easily daunted. 
“ Suum cuique trihuito,^^ said he ; “I will stand for my 
lord’s right and my own.” 

“ Will you replied Magnus ; “ then, by the Martyr’s 
bones, you shall have no law of partition but that of God 
and Saint Olave, which we had before either factor, or 
treasurer, or chamberlain were heard of! — All shall share 
that lend a hand, and never a one else. So you. Master 
Factor, shall be busy as well as other folk, and tliink 
yourself lucky to share like other folk. Jump into that 
boat, (for the boats had by this time pulled round the 
headland,) and you, my lads, make way for the factor ir. 


214 


THE PIRATE. 


the stern-sheets — he shall be the first man this blessed 
day that shall strike the fish.” 

The loud authoritative voice, and the habit of absolute 
command inferred in the Udaller’s whole manner, together 
with the conscious want of favourers and backers amongst 
the rest of the company, rendered it difficult for Triptol- 
cmus to evade compliance, although he was thus about to 
be placed in a situation equally novel and perilous. He 
was still, however, hesitating, and attempting an explana- 
tion with a voice in which anger was qualified by fear, 
and both thinly disguised under an attempt to he jocular, 
and to represent the whole as a jest, when he heard the 
voice of Baby maundering in his ear, — “ Wad he lose 
his share of the ulzie, and the lang Zetland winter coming 
on, when the lightest day in December is not so clear as 
a moonless night in the Mearns ?” 

This domestic instigation, in addition to those of fear 
of the Udaller, and shame to seem less courageous than 
others, so inflamed the agriculturist’s spirits, that he shook 
his graip aloft, and entered the boat with the air of Nep- 
tune himself, carrying on high his trident. 

The three boats destined for this perilous service, now 
approached the dark mass, which lay like an islet in the 
deepest part of the voe, and suffered them to approach 
without showing any sign of animation. Silently, and 
with such precaution as the extreme delicacy of the op- 
eration required, the intrepid adventurers, after the fail- 
ure of their first attempt, and the expenditure of consid- 
erable time, succeeded in casting a cable around the body 
of the torpid monster, and in carrying the ends of it 
ashore, when an hundred hands were instantly employed 
m securing them. But ere this was accomplished, the 
tide began to make fast, and the Udaller informed his 
assistants, that either the fish must be killed, or at least 
greatly wounded, ere the depth of water on the bar was 
sufficient to float him ; or that he was not unlikely to 
escape from their joint prowess. 

“ Wherefore,” said he, “ we must set to work, and 
the factor shall have the honour to make the first throw.’ 


THE PIRATE. 


215 


The valiant Triptolemus caught the word ; and it is 
necessary to say that the patience of the whale in suffer- 
ing himself to be noosed without resistance, had abated 
his terrors, and very much lowered the creature in his 
opinion. He protested the fish had no more wit, and 
scarcely more activity, than a black snail ; and, influenced 
by this undue contempt of the adversary, he waited 
neither for a farther signal, nor a better weapon, nor a 
more suitable position, but, rising in his energy, hurled 
his graip with all his force against the unfortunate monster. 
The boats had not yet retreated from him, to the distance 
necessary to ensure safety, when this injudicious com- 
mencement of the war took place. 

Magnus Troil, who had only jested with the factor, and 
had reserved the launching the first spear against the 
whale to some much more ‘skilful hand, had just time to 
exclaim, “ Mind yourselves, lads, or we are all swamped!” 
when the monster, roused at once from inactivity by the 
blow of the factor’s missile, blew, with a noise resembling 
the explosion of a steam-engine, a huge shower of water 
into the air, and at the same time began to lash the waves 
with its tail in every direction. The boat in which Mag- 
nus presided received the shower of brine which the an- 
imal spouted aloft ; and the adventurous Triptolemus, 
who had a full share of the immersion, was so much as- 
tonished and terrified by the consequences of his own 
valorous deed, that he tumbled backwards amongst the 
feet of the people, who, too busy to attend to him, were 
actively engaged in getting the boat into shoal water, out 
of the whale’s reach. Here he lay for some minutes, 
trampled on by the feet of the boatmen, until they lay on 
•heir oars to bale, when the Udaller ordered them to pull 
to shore, and land this spare hand, who had commenced 
the fishing so inauspiciously. 

While this was doing, the other boats had also pulled ofi 
to safer distance, and now, from these as well as from the 
shore, the unfortunate native of the deep was overwhelm- 
ed by all kinds of missiles, — harpoons and spears flew 
against him on all sides — guns were fired, and each vari- 


THE PIRATE. 


21C 

ous means of annoyance plied which could excite him to 
exhaust his strength in useless rage. When the animal 
found that he was locked in by shallows on all sides, and 
became sensible, at the same time, of the strain of the 
cable on his body, the convulsive efforts which he made 
to escape, accompanied with sounds resembling deep and 
loud groans, would have moved the compassion of all but 
a practised whale-fisher. The repeated showers which 
he spouted into the air began now to be mingled with 
blood, and the waves which surrounded him assumed the 
same crimson appearance. Meantime the attempts of the 
assailants were redoubled ; but Mordaunt Mertoun and 
Cleveland, in particular, exerted themselves to the utter- 
tnost, contending who should display most courage. it» 
approaching the monster, so tremendous in its agonies, 
and should inflict the most deep and deadly wounds upon 

huge bulk. 

The contest seemed at last pretty well over ; for al- 
though the animal continued from time to time to make 
frantic exertions for liberty, yet its strength appeared so 
much exhausted, that, even with assistance of the tide, 
which had now risen considerably, it was thought it could 
scarcely extricate itself. 

Magnus gave the signal to venture nearer to the 
whale, calling out at the time, “ Close in, lads, he is 
not half so mad now — The Factor may look for a win- 
ter’s oil for the two lamps at Harfra — Pull close in, lads.” 

Ere his orders could be obeyed, the other two boats 
lad anticipated his purpose ; and Mordaunt Mertoun, 
eager to distinguish himself above Cleveland, had with 
the whole strength he possessed, plunged a half-pike into 
the body of the animal. But the leviathan, like a nation 
whose resources appear totally exhausted by previous 
losses and calamities, collected his whole remaining force 
for an effort, which proved at once desperate and success- 
ful. The wound, last received, had probably reached 
through his external defences of blubber, and attained 
some very sensitive part of the system ; for he roared 


THE PIRATE. 


211 


aJoud, as he sent to the sky a mingled sheet of brine and 
olood, and snapping the strong cable like a twig, overset 
Mertoun’s boat with a blow of his tail, shot himself, by a 
mighty effort, over the bar, upon which the tide had now 
risen considerably, and made out to sea, carrying with him 
a whole grove of the implements which had been planted 
in his body, and leaving behind him, on the waters, a dark 
red trace of his course. 

“ There goes to sea your cruise of oil. Master Yellow- 
ley,” said Magnus, “ and you must consume mutton 
suet, or go to bed in the dark.” 

“ Operam et oleum perdidi,^' muttered Triptolemus ; 

but if they catch me whale-fishing again, I will consent 
that the fish shall swallow me as he did Jonah.” 

“ But where is Mordaunt Mertoun all this while ?” ex- 
claimed Claud Halcro ; and it was instantly perceived 
that the youth, who had been stunned when his boat was 
stove, was unable to swim to shore as the other sailors 
did, and now floated senseless upon the waves. 

We have noticed the strange and inhuman prejudice, 
which rendered the Zetlanders of that period unwilling 
to assist those whom they saw in the act of drowning, 
though that is the calamity to w’hich the islanders are most 
frequently exposed. Three men, however, soared above 
this superstition. The first was Claud Halcro, who 
threw himself from a small rock headlong into the waves, 
forgetting, as he himself afterwards stated, that he could 
not swim, and, if possessed of the harp of Arion, had no 
dolphins in attendance. The first plunge which the poet 
made in deep water, reminding him of these deficiencies, 
he was fain to cling to the rock from which he had dived, 
and was at length glad to regain the shore, at the expense 
of a ducking. 

Magnus Troil, whose honest heart forgot his late cooh 
ness towards Mordaunt, when he saw the youth’s danger, 
would instantly have brought him more efectual aid, but 
Eric Scambesier held him fast. 


VOL I. 


21S 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Hoat, sir — hout,” exclaimed that faithful attendant 
— “ Captain Cleveland has a grip of Mr. Mordaunt — just 
let the twa strangers help ilk other, and stand by the up- 
shot. The light of the country is not to be quenched for 
the like of them. Bide still, sir, I say — Bredness Voe 
’s not a bowl of punch, that a man can be fished out of 
like a toast with a long spoon.” 

This sage remonstrance would have been altogether 
lost upon Magnus, had he not observed that Cleveland 
had in fact jumped out of the boat, and swam to Mer- 
toun’s assistance, and was keeping him afloat till the boat 
came to the aid of both. As soon as the immediate 
danger which called so loudly for assistance was thus 
ended, the honest Udaller’s desire to render aid terminat- 
ed also 5 and recollecting the cause of offence which he 
had, or thought he had, against Mordaunt Mertoun, he 
shook off his butler’s hold, and turning round scornfully 
from the beach, called Eric an old fool for supposing 
that he cared whether the young fellow sank or swam. 

Still, however, amid his assumed indifference, Magnus 
could not help peeping over the heads of the circle, 
which, surrounding Mordaunt as soon as he was brought 
on shore, were charitably employed in endeavouring to 
recall him to life ; and he was not able to attain the ap- 
pearance of absolute unconcern, until the young man sat 
up on the beach, and showed plainly that the accident had 
been attended with no material consequences. It was 
then first that, cursing the assistants for not giving the lad 
a glass of brandy, he walked sullenly away, as if totally 
unconcerned in his fate. 

The women, always accurate in observing the tell-tale 
emotions of each other, failed not to remark, that when 
the sisters of Burgh-Westra saw Mordaunt immersed in 
the waves, Minna grew as pale as death, while Brenda 
iitiered successive shrieks of terror. But though there 
were some nods, winks, and hints, that auld acquaintance 
were not easily forgot, it was, on the whole, candidly ad- 
mitted, that less than such marks of interest could scarce 


THE PIRATE. 


219 


have aeeri expected, when they saw the companion of 
their early youth in the act of perishing before their eyes. 

Whatever interest Mord aunt’s condition excited while 
It seemed perilous, began to abate as he recovered him- 
self ; and when his senses were fully restored, only 
Claud Halcro, with two or three others, were standing by 
him. About ten paces off stood Cleveland — his hair and 
clothes dropping water, and his features wearing so pe- 
culiar an expression, as immediately to arrest the atten- 
tion of Mordaunt. There was a suppressed smile on his 
cheek, and a look of pride in his eye, that implied libera- 
tion from a painful restraint, and something resembling 
gratified scorn. Claud Halcro hastened to intimate to 
Mordaunt, that he owed his life to Cleveland ; and the 
youth, rising from the ground, and losing all other feelings 
in those of gratitude, stepped forward with his hand 
stretched out, to offer his warmest thanks to his preserver. 
But he stopped short in surprise, as Cleveland, retreating 
a pace or two, folded his arms on his breast, and declined 
to accept his proffered hand. He drew back in turn, 
and gazed with astonishment at the ungracious manner, 
and almost insulting look, with which Cleveland, who had 
formerly rather expressed a frank cordiality, or at least, 
openness of bearing, now, after having thus rendered him 
a most important service, chose to receive his thanks. 

“ It is enough,” said Cleveland, observing his surprise, 
“ and it is unnecessary to say more about it, I have paid 
back my debt, and we are now equal.” 

“ You are more than equal with me. Captain Cleve- 
land,” answered Mertoun, “ because you endangered your 
life to do for me what I did for you without the slightest 
risk ; — besides,” he added, trying to give the discourse a 
more pleasant turn, 1 have your rifle-gun to boot.” 

‘‘ Cowards only count danger for any point of the 
game,” said Cleveland. “ Danger has been my consort 
for life, and sailed with me on a thousand worse voyages ; 
— and or rifles, I have enough of my own, and you may 
see, when you will, which can use them best.” 


220 


THE PIRATE. 


There was something in the tone with which this was 
said, that struck Mordaunt strongly ; it was miching mali- 
cho, as Hamlet says, and meant mischief. Cleveland 
saw his surprise, came close up to him, and spoke in a 
low tone of voice : “ Hark ye, my young brother — 
There is a. custom among us gentlemen of fortune, that 
when we follow the same chase, and take the wind oiit of 
each other’s sails, we think sixty yards of the sea-beach, 
and a brace of rifles, are no bad way of making our odds 
even.” 

‘‘ I do not understand you. Captain Cleveland,” said 
Mordaunt. 

“ I do not suppose you do, — I did not suppose you 
would,” said the Captain ; and turning on his heel, with 
a smile that resembled a sneer, Mordaunt saw him min- 
gle with the guests, and very soon beheld him at the side 
of Minna, who was talking to him with animated features, 
that seemed to thank him for his gallant and generous 
conduct. 

“ If it were not for Brenda,” thought Mordaunt, “ I 
almost wish he had left me in the voe, for no one seems 
to care whether I am alive or dead. — Two rifles and sixty 
yards of sea-beach — is that what he points at ? — it may 
come, — but not on the day he has saved my life with 
risk of his own,” 

While he was thus musing, Eric Scambester was whis- 
pering to Halcro, “ If these two lads do not do each other 
a mischief, there is no faith in freits. Master Mordaunt 
saves Cleveland, — well. — Cleveland, in requital, has turn- 
ed all the sunshine of Burgh-Westra to his own sidf^ of 
the house ; and think what it is to lose favour in such a 
iiouse as this, where the punch-kettle is never allowed to 
cool! Well, now that Cleveland in his turn has been such 
a fool as to fish Mordaunt out of the voe, see if he does 
not give him sour sillocks for stock-fish.” 

“ Pshaw, pshaw !” replied the poet, “ that is all old 
women’s fancies, my friend Eric ; for what says glorious 
Dryden — sainted John, — 


THE PIRATE. 


221 


* The yellow gall, that in your bosom floats, 
Engenders all these melancholy thoughts/ 


“ Saint John or Saint James either, may be mistaken 
111 the matter,” said Eric ; “ for I think neither of them 
lived in Zetland. I only say, that if there is faith in old 
saws, these two lads will do each other a mischief ; and, 
if they do, I trust it will light on Mordaunt Mertoun.” 

“ And why, Eric Scambester,” said Halcro, hastily 
and angrily, “ should you wish ill to that poor young man, 
that is worth fifty of the other ?” 

“ Let every one roose the ford as he finds it,” replied 
Eric ; “ Master Mordaunt is all for wan water, like his old 
dog-fish of a father ; now Captain Cleveland, d’ye see, 
takes his glass, like an honest fellow and a gentleman.” 

‘‘ Rightly reasoned, and in thine own division,” said 
Halcro ; and breaking off their conversation, took his way 
back to Burgh-Westra, to which the guests of Magnus 
were now returning, discussing as they went, with much 
animation, the various incidents of their awtack upon the 
whale, and not a little scandalized that it should have 
baffled all their exertions. 

‘‘ I hope Captain Donderdrecht of the Eintracht of 
Rotterdam will never hear of it,” said Magnus ; “ he 
would swear, donner and blitzen,, we were only fit to fish 
flounders.”^ 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

And helter-skelter have I rode to thee, 

And tidings do 1 bring, and lucky joys. 

And golden times, and happy news of price. 

Ancient Pista. 

Fortune, who seems at times to bear a conscience, 
owed the hospitable Udaller some amends, and accord- 
ingly repaid to Burgh-Westra the disappointment occa- 

VOL. I. 


222 


THE PIKATE. 


Sioned by the unsuccessful whale-fishing, by sending 
thither, on the evening of the day in which that incident 
happened, no less a person than the jagger, or travelling 
merchant, as he styled himself, Bryce Snailsfoot, who 
arrived in great pomp, himself on one pony, and his pack 
of goods, swelled to nearly double its usual size, forming 
the burden of another, which was led by a bare-headed, 
bare-legged boy. 

As Bryce announced himself the bearer of important 
news, he was introduced to the dining apartment, where 
(for that primitive age was no respecter of persons) he 
was permitted to sit down at a side-table, and amply sup- 
plied with provisions and good liquor ; while the attentive 
hospitality of Magnus permitted no questions to be put to 
him, until, his hunger and thirst appeased, he announced, 
with the sense of importance attached to distant travels, 
that he had just yesterday arrived at Lerwick from Kirk- 
wall, the capital of Orkney, and would have been here 
yesterday, but it blew hard olF the Fitful-head. 

“ We had no wind here,” said Magnus. 

“ There is somebody has not been sleeping then,” 
said the pedlar, “ and her name begins with N 5 but 
Heaven is above all.” 

‘‘ But the news from Orkney, Bryce, instead of croak- 
ing about a capful of wind ?” 

“ Such news,” replied Bryce, “ as has not been heard 
this thirty years — not since Cromwell’s time.” 

“ There is not another Revolution, is there ?” said 
Halcro ; “ King James has not come back as blithe as 
King Charlie did, has he ?” 

“ It’s news,” replied the pedlar, “ that are worth 
twenty kings, and kingdoms to boot of them ; for what 
good did the evolutions ever do us ? and I dare say we 
have seen a dozen, great and sma’.” 

“ Are any Indiamen come north about ?” said Magnus 
Troil. 

“Ye are nearer the mark, Fowd,”” said the jagger ; 
“ but it is nae Indiaman, but a gallant armed vessel, choke- 
full of merchandize, that they part with so easy that a 


THE PIRATE. 


223 


decent man like mysell can afford to give the country the 
best pennyworths you ever saw ; and that you will say, 
when I open that pack, for I count to carry it back another 
^ sort lighter than when 1 brought it here.” 

“ Ay, ay, Bryce,” said the Udaller, “ you must have 
had good bargains if you sell cheap ; but what ship was 
it ?” 

“ Cannot justly say — I spoke to nobody but the cap- 
lain, who was a discreet man ; but she had been down on 
the Spanish Main, for she has silks and satins, and tobac- 
co, I warrant you, and wine, and no lack of sugar, and 
bonnie-wallies baith of silver and gowd, and a bonnie 
dredging of gold dust into the bargain.” 

“ What like was she ?” said Cleveland, who seemed to 
give much attention. 

“ A stout ship,” said the itinerant merchant, “schoon- 
er-rigged, sails like a dolphin they say, carries twelve 
guns, and is pierced for twenty.” 

“ Did you hear the captain’s name ?” said Cleveland, 
speaking rather lower than his usual tone. 

“ I just ca’d him the Captain,” replied Bryce Snails- 
foot ; “ for I make it a rule never to ask questions at 
them I deal with in the way of trade ; for there is many 
an honest captain, begging your })ardon. Captain Cleve- 
land, that does not care to have his name tacked to his 
title ; and as lang as we ken w'hat bargains we are mak- 
ing, what signifies it wha we are making them wi’, ye 
ken ?” 

“ Bryce Snailsfoot is a cautious man,” said the Udal- 
ler, laughing ; “ he knows a fool may ask more questions 
than a wise man cares to answer.” 

“ I have dealt with the fair traders in my day,” replied 
Snailsfoot, “ and I ken nae use in blurting braid out with 
a man’s name at every moment ; but I will uphold this 
gentleman to be a gallant commander — ay, and a kind 
one too ; for every one of his crew is as brave in apparel 
as himself nearly — the very Toremast-men have their 
silken scarfs, I have seen many ajady wear a warse, and 
think hersell nae sma’ drink — ^^and for siller buttons, and 


224 


THE PIRATE. 


buckles, and the lave of sic vanities, there is nae end o . 
them.” 

“ Idiots !” muttered Cleveland between his teeth : and 
then added, “ I suppose they are often ashore, to show 
all their bravery to the lasses of Kirkwall ?” 

“ Ne’er a bit of that are they. The Captain will scarce 
let them stir ashore without the boatswain go in the boat 
— as rough a tarpaulin as ever swabb’d a deck — and you 
may as weel catch a cat without her claws, as him with- 
out his cutlass and his double brace of pistols about him ; 
every man stands as much in awe of him as of the com- 
mander himsell.” 

“ That must be Hawkins, or the devil,” said Cleveland. 

“ Aweel, Captain,” replied the jagger, ‘‘ be he the 
tane or the tither, or a wee bit o’ baith, mind it is you that 
give him these names, and not I.” 

“ Why^ Captain Cleveland,” said the Udaller, “ this 
may prove the very consort you spoke of.” 

“ They must have had some good luck then,” said 
Cleveland, “to put them in better plight than when I left 
them . — Did they speak of having lost their consort, pedlar ?” 

“ In troth did they,” said Bryce ; “ that is, they said 
something about a partner that had gone down to Davie 
Jones in these seas.” 

“ And did you tell them what you knew of her ?” said 
the Udaller. 

“ And wha the deevil wad hae been the fule then,” said 
the pedlar, “ that I suld say sae ? when they kend what 
came of the ship, the next question wad have been about 
the cargo, — and ye wad not have had me bring down an 
armed vessel on the coast, to harrie the poor folk about a 
wheen rags of duds that the sea flung upon their shores ?” 

“ Besides what might have been found in your own 
pack, you scoundrel !” said Magnus Troil, an observation 
which produced a loud laugh. The Udaller could not 
help joining in the hilarity which applauded his jest , 
but instantly composing his countenance, he said, in an 
unusually grave tone, “ You may laugh, my friends , but 
this is a matter which brings both a curse and a shame on 


THE riRATE. 


225 


ihe country ; and till we learn to regard the rights of them 
that sulFer by the winds and waves, we shall deserve to be 
oppressed and hag-ridden, as we have been and are b_y 
the superior strength of the strangers who rule us.” 

The company hung their heads at the rebuke of Mag- 
nus Troil. Perliaps some, even of the better class, might 
be conscience-struck on their own account ; and all of 
them were sensible that the appetite for plunder, on the 
part of the tenants and inferiors, was not at all times re- 
strained with sufficient strictness. But Cleveland made 
answer gaily, “ If these honest fellows be my comrades, 
I will answer for them that they will never trouble the 
country about a parcel of chests, hammocks, and such 
trumpery, that the Roost may have washed ashore out of 
my poor sloop. What signifies to them whether the trash 
went to Bryce Snailsfoot, or to the bottom, or to the devil ? 
So unbuckle thy pack, Bryce, and show the ladies thy 
cargo, and perhaps we may see something that will please 
them.” 

“ It cannot be his consort,” said Brenda, in a whisper 
to her sister ; “ he would have shown more joy at her 
appearance.” 

“ It must be the vessel,” answered Minna ; “ I saw his 
eye glisten at the thought of being again united to the 
partner of his dangers.” 

“ Perhaps it glistened,” said her sister, still apart, ‘‘ at 
the thought of leaving Zetland ; it is difficult to guess the 
thought of the heart from the glance of the eye.” 

“ Judge not, at least, unkindly of a friend’s thought,” 
said Minna ; “ and then, Brenda, if you are mistaken, 
the fault rests not with you.” 

During this dialogue Bryce Snailsfoot was busied in 
Hiicoiling the carefully arranged cordage of his pack, 
which amounted to six good yards of dressed seal-skin, 
curiously complicated and secured by all manner of knots 
and buckles. He was considerably interrupted in the 
task by the Udaller and others, who pressed him with 
questions respecting the stranger vessel 


226 


THE PIRATE. 


Were the officers often ashore, and how were they 
received by the people of Kirkwall ?” said Magnus Troii. 

“ Excellently well,” answered Bryce Snailsfoot 5 “ and 
the Captain and one or two of his men had been at some 
of the vanities and dances which went forward in the 
town ; but there had been some word ^about customs, or 
king’s duties, or the like, and some of the higher folk, 
that took upon them as magistrates, or the like, had had 
words with the captain, and he refused to satisfy them ; 
and then it is like he was more coldly looked on, and 
he spoke of carrying the ship round to Stromness, or the 
Langhope, for she lay under the guns of the battery at 
Kirkwall. But he (Bryce) thought she wad bide at Kirk- 
wall till the summer-fair was over, for all that.” 

“ The Orkney gentry,” said Magnus Troii, “ are al- 
ways in a hurry to draw the Scotch collar tighter round 
their own necks. Is it not enough that we must pay scat 
and wattle^ which were all the public dues under our old 
Norse government ; but must they come over us with 
king’s dues and customs besides ? It is the part of an 
honest man to resist these things. I have done so all my 
life, and will do so to the end of it.” 

There was a loud jubilee and shout of applause among 
the guests, who were (some of them at least) better pleas- 
ed with Magnus Troil’s latitudinarian principles with re- 
spect to the public revenue, (which were extremely 
natural to those living in so secluded a situation, and sub- 
jected to many additional exactions,) than they had been 
with the rigour of his judgment on the subject of wreck- 
ed goods. But Minna’s inexperienced feelings carried 
her farther than her father, while she whispered to Bren- 
da, not unheard by Cleveland, that the tame spirit of the 
Orcadians had missed every chance which late incidents 
had given them to emancipate these islands from the Scot- 
tish yoke. 

“ Why,” she said,” should we not, under so many 
cl)anges as late times have introduced, have seized the 
opportunity to shake off an allegiance which is not justly 
due from us, and to return to the protection of Denmark, 


THE PIRATE. 


227 


our parent country ? Why should we yet hesitate to do 
this, hut that the gentry of Orkney have mixed families* 
and friendship so much with our invaders, that they have 
become dead to the throb of the heroic Norse blood, 
which they derived from their ancestors ?” 

The latter part of this patriotic speech happened to 
reach the astonished ears of our friend Triptolernus, who, 
having a sincere devotion for the Protestant succession, 
and the Revolution as established, was surprised into the 
ejaculation, As the old cock crows the young cock learns 
— hen I should say, mistress, and I crave your pardon if 
1 say any thing amiss in either gender. But it is a happy 
country where the father declares against the king’s cus- 
toms, and the daughter against the king’s crown ! and, in 
my judgment, it can end in naething but trees and tows.” 

“ Trees are scarce among us,” said Magnus ; ‘‘ and 
for ropes we need them for our rigging, and cannot spare 
them to be shirt-collars.” 

“ And whoever,” said the Captain, ‘‘ takes umbrage at 
what this young lady says, had better keep his ears and 
tongue for a safer employment than such an adventure.” 

“ Ay, ay,” said Triptolernus, “ it helps the matter much 
to speak truths, whilk are as unwelcome to a proud stom- 
ach as wet clover to a cow’s, in a land where lads are 
ready to draw the whittle if a lassie but looks awry. But 
what manners are to be expected in a country where folk 
call a pleugh-sock a markal ?” 

“ Hark ye. Master Yellowley,” said the Captain, smil- 
ing, I hope my manners are not among those abuses 
which you come hither to reform ; any experiment on 
them may be dangerous.” 

“ As well as difficult,” said Triptolernus dryly; “ but 
fear nothing. Captain Cleveland, from my remonstrances. 
My labours regard the men and things of the earth, and 
not the men and things of the sea, — you are not of my 
element.” 

“ Let us be friends then, old clod-compeller,” said the 
Captain 


228 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Clod-compeller !” said the agriculturist, bethinking 
nimself of the lore of his earlier days ; “ Clod-compel- 
ler pro cloud-compeller, NscpsXiiys^sTa Zsvg—Grcecum est, 
— in which voyage came you by that phrase ?” 

“ I have travelled books as well as seas in my day,’’ 
said the Captain ; “ but my last voyages have been of a 
sort to make me forget my early cruizes through classic 
knowledge.^ — But come here, Bryce, — hast cast off the 
lashing ? — Come all hands, and let us see if he has aught 
in his cargo that is worth looking upon.” 

With a proud, and, at the same time, a wily smile, did 
the crafty pedlar display a collection of wares far superior 
to those which usually filled his packages, and, in partic- 
ular, some stuffs and embroideries, of such beauty and 
curiosity, fringed, flowered, and worked with such art and 
magnificence, upon foreign and arabesque patterns, that 
the sight might have dazzled a far more brilliant company 
than the simple race of Thule. All beheld and admired, 
while Mistress Baby Yellowley, holding up her hands, 
protested it was a sin even to look upon such extrava- 
gance, and worse than murder so much as to ask the price 
of them. 

Others, however, were more courageous ; and the 
prices demanded by the merchant, if they were not, as he 
himself declared, something just more than nothing — 
short only of an absolute free gift of his wares, were nev- 
ertheless so moderate, as to show that he himself must 
have made an easy acquisition of the goods, judging by 
the rate at which he offered to part with them. Accord- 
ingly, the cheapness of the articles created a rapid sale ; 
for in Zetland, as well as elsewhere, wise folk buy more 
from the prudential desire to secure a good bargain, than 
fi’om any real occasion for the purchase. The Lady 
Glowrowrum bought seven petticoats and twelve stom- 
achers on this sole principle, and other matrons present 
rivalled her in this sagacious species of economy. The 
Ldaller was also a considerable purchaser ; but the prin- 
cipal customer for whatever could please the eye of beau- 
ty, was the gallant Captain Cleveland, who rummaged 


THE PIRATE. 


229 


the jagger’s stores in selecting presents for the ladies of 
the party, in which Minna and Brenda Troil were es- 
pecially remembered. 

‘‘ I fear,” said Magnus Troil, that the young women 
are to consider these pretty presents as keep-sakes, and 
that all this liberality is only a sure sign we are soon to 
lose you ?” 

This question seemed to embarrass him to whom it 
was put. 

“ I scarce know,” he said, with some hesitation, 
‘‘ whether this vessel is my consort or no — I must .take a 
trip to Kirkwall to make sure of that matter, and then 1 
hope to return to Dunrossness to bid you all farewell.” 

“ In that case,” said the Udaller, after a moment’s 
pause, 1 think I may carry you thitlier. I should be at 
the Kirkwall fair, to settle with the merchants I have con- 
signed my fish to, and I have often promised Minna and 
Brenda that they should see the fair. Perhaps also your 
consort, or these strangers, whoever they be, may have 
some merchandize that will suit me. I love to see my 
rigging-loft well stocked with goods, almost as much as to 
see it full of dancers. We will go to Orkney in my own 
brig, and I can offer you a hammock if you will.” 

The offer seemed so acceptable to Cleveland, that, 
after pouring himself forth in thanks, he seemed deter- 
mined to mark his joy by exhausting Bryce Snailsfoot’s 
treasures in liberality to the company. The contents of 
a purse of gold were transferred to the jagger, with a fa- 
cility and indifference on the part of its former owner 
which argued either the greatest profusion, or conscious- 
ness of superior and inexhaustible wealth ; so that Baby 
whispered to her brother, that, “ if he could afford to 
ding away money at this rate, the lad had made a better 
voyage in a broken ship than all the skippers of Dundee 
liad made in their hail anes for a twelvemonth past.” 

But the angry feeling in which she made this remark 
was much mollified, when Cleveland, whose object it 
seemed that evening to be, to buy golden opinions of all 

VOL. I. 


230 


THE PIRATE. 


sorts of men, approached her with a garment somewhat 
resembling in shape the Scottish plaid, but woven of a 
sort of wool so soft, that it felt to the touch as if it were 
composed of eider-down. This, he said, was a part of a 
Spanish lady’s dress, called a mantilla ; as it would ex- 
actly fit the size of Mrs. Baby Yellowley, and was very 
well suited for the fogs of the climate of Zetland, he en- 
treated her to wear it for his sake. The lady, with as 
much condescending sweetness as her countenance was 
able to express, not only consented to receive this mark 
of galkmtry, but permitted the donor to arrange the man- 
tilla upon her projecting and bony shoulder-blades, where, 
said Claud Halcro, “ it hung, for all the world, as if it 
had been stretched betwixt a couple of cloak-pins.” 

While the Captain was performing this piece of cour- 
tesy much to the entertainment of the company, which, 
it may be presumed, was his principal object from the 
beginning, Mordaunt Mertoun made purchase of a small 
golden chaplet, with the private intention of presenting it 
to Brenda, when he should find an opportunity. The 
price was fixed, and the article laid aside. Claud 
Halcro also showed some desire of possessing a silver 
box of antique shape, for depositing tobacco, which he 
was in the habit of using in considerable quantity. But 
the bard seldom had current coin in promptitude, and in- 
deed, in his wandering way of life, had little occasion for 
any ; and Bryce, on the other hand, his having been 
hitherto a ready-money trade, protested, that his very 
moderate profits upon such rare and choice articles, would 
not allow of his affording credit to the purchaser. Mor- 
daunt gathered the import of this conversation from the 
mode in which they whispered together, while the bard 
seemed to advance a wishful finger towards the box in 
question, and the cautious pedlar detained it with the 
weight of his whole hand, as if he had been afraid it 
would literally make itself wings, and fly into Claud Hal 
cro’s pocket. Mordaunt Mertoun at this moment, desir- 
ous to gratify an old acquaintance, laid the price of the 
Dox on the tabk, and said he would not permit Master 


THE PIRATE. 231 

Halcro to purchase that box, as he had settled in his owit 
mind to make him a present of it. 

“ I cannot think of robbing you, my dear young 
friend,” said the poet ; “ but the truth is, that that same 
box does remind me strangely of glorious John’s, out of 
which I had the honour to take a pinch at the Wit’s Coffee- 
house, for which I think more highly of my right-hand 
finger and thumb than any other part of my body ; only 
you must allow me to pay you back the price when my 
Urkaster stock-fish come to market.” 

“ Settle that as you like betwixt you,” said the jagger, 
taking up Mordaunt’s money ; “ the box is bought and 
sold.” 

“ And how dare you sell over again,” said Captain 
Cleveland, suddenly interfering, “ what you already have 
sold to me ?” 

All were surprised at this interjection, which was has- 
tily made, as Cleveland, having turned from Mistress 
Baby, had become suddenly, and, as it seemed, not with- 
out emotion, aware what articles Bryce Snailsfoot was 
now disposing of. To this short and fierce question the 
jagger, afraid to contradict a customer of his description, 
answered only by stammering, “ that the Lord knew he 
meant nae offence.” 

“ How, sir ! no offence !” said the seaman, “ and dis- 
pose of my property ?” extending his hand at the same 
time to the box and the chaplet ; “ restore the young 
gentleman’s money, and learn to keep your course on the 
meridian of honesty.” 

The jagger, confused and reluctant, pulled out his leath- 
ern pouch to repay to Mordaunt the money he had just 
deposited in it ; but the youth was not to be so satisfied. 

“ The articles,” he said, “ were bought and sold— 
these were your own words, Bryce Snailsfoot, in Master 
Halcro’s hearing ; and I will sufer neither you nor any 
other to deprive me of my property.” 

“ Your properly, young man ?” said Cleveland ; “ it 
is mine, — I spoke to Bryce respecting them an instant 
before I turned from the table ” 


232 


THE PIRATE. 


« I — I — had not just heard distinctly,” said Bryxe 
evidently unwilling to offend either party.” 

“ Come, come,” said the Udaller, “ we will have no 
quarrelling about baubles ; we shall be summoned pres- 
ently to the rigging-loft,” — so he used to call the apart- 
ment used as a ball-room, — “ and we must all go in good 
humour. The things shall remain with Bryce for to- 
night, and to-morrow I will myself settle whom they shall 
belong to.” 

The laws of the Udaller in his own house were abso- 
lute as those of the Medes. The two young men, re- 
garding each other with looks of sullen displeasure, drew 
off in different directions. 

It is seldom that the second day of a prolonged festi- 
val equals the first. The spirits, as well as the limbs, are 
iaded, and unequal to the renewed expenditure of anima- 
tion and exertion ; and the dance at Burgh-Westra was 
sustained with much less mirth than on the preceding 
evening. It was yet an hour from midnight, when even 
the reluctant Magnus Troil, after regretting the degenera- 
cy of the times, and wishing he could transfuse into the 
modern Hialtlanders some of the vigour which still ani- 
mated his own frame, found himself compelled to give 
the signal for general retreat. 

Just as this took place, Halcro, leading Mordaunt Mer- 
toun a little aside, said he had a message to him from 
Captain Cleveland. 

“ A message !” said Mordaunt, his heart beating some- 
what thick as he spoke — “ A challenge, 1 suppose ?” 

“ A challenge !” repeated Halcro ; “ who ever heard 
of a challenge in our quiet islands ? do you think that I 
look like a carrier of challenges, and to you of all men 
living ?— I am none of those fighting fools, as glorious 
John calls them ; and it was not quite a message I had to 
deliver — only thus far, — this Captain Cleveland, I find, 
hath set his heart upon having these articles you look- 
ed at.” 

“ He shall not have them, I swear to you,” replied 
Mordaunt Mertoun. 


THE PIRATE. 


233 


“ Nay, but hear me,” said Halcro ; “ it seems that, by 
the marks or arms that are upon them, he knows that they 
were formerly his property. Now, were you to give me 
the box, as you promised, I fairly tell you I should give the 
man back his own.” 

“ And Brenda might do the like,” thought Mordaunr 
to himself, and instantly replied aloud, - “ I have thought 
better of it, my friend. Captain Cleveland shall have 
the toys he sets such store by, but it is on one sole con- 
dition.” 

“ Nay, you will spoil all with your conditions,” said 
Halcro ; “ for, as glorious John says, conditions are 
but ” 

“ Hear me, I say, with patience. — My condilion is, that 
he keeps the toys in exchange for the rifle-gun I accepted 
from him, which will leave no obligation between us on 
either side.” 

“ I see where you would be — this is Sebastian and 
Dorax all over. Well, you may let the jagger know he 
is to deliver the things to Cleveland — I think he is mad to 
have them — and I will let Cleveland know the conditions 
annexed, otherwise honest Bryce might come by two pay- 
ments instead of one ; and I believe his conscience would 
not choke upon it.” 

With these words, Halcro went to seek out Cleveland, 
while Mordaunt, observing Snailsfoot, who, as a sort of 
privileged person, had thrust himself into the crowd at 
the bottom of the dancing-room, went up to him, and 
gave him directions to deliver the disputed articles to 
Cleveland as soon as he had an opportunity. 

“ Ye are in the right, Maister Mordaunt,” said the jag- 
ger ; “ ye are a prudent and a sensible lad — a calm an. 
swer turneth away wrath — and mysell, I sail be willing to 
please you in ony trifling matters in my sma’ way ; for 
between the Udaller of Burgh-Westra and Captain Cleve- 
land, a man is, as it were, atween the deil and the deep 
sea ; and it was like that the Udaller, in the end, would 

VOL. I 


234 


THE PIRATE. 


have taken your part in the dispute, for he is a man tha 
loves justice.” 

‘‘ Which apparently you care very little about, Master 
Snailsfoot,” said Mordaunt, “ otherwise there could have 
been no dispute whatever, the right being so clearly on 
my side, if you had pleased to bear witness according to 
the dictates of truth.” 

“ Maister Mordaunt,” said the jagger, “ I must own 
there was, as it were, a colouring or shadow of justice on 
your side ; but then, the justice that I meddle with, is only 
justice in the way of trade, to have an ellwand of due 
length, if it be not something worn out with leaning on it 
in my lang and painful journeys, and to buy and sell by 
just weight and measure, twenty-four merks to the lis- 
pund ; but I have nothing to do, to do justice betwixl 
man and man, like a Fowd or a Lawright-man at a 
lawting lang syne.” 

“ No one asked you to do so, but only to give evidence 
according to your conscience,” replied Mordaunt, not 
greatly pleased either with the part the jagger had acted 
during the dispute, or the construction which he seemed 
to put on his own motives for yielding up the point. 

But Bryce Snailsfoot wanted not his answer ; “ My 
conscience,” he said, “ Maister Mordaunt, is as tender as 
ony man’s in my degree ; but she is something of a tim- 
ersome nature, cannot abide angry folk, and can never 
speak above her breath, when there is aught of a fray 
going forward. Indeed, she hath at all times a small and 
low voice.” 

“ Which you are not much in the habit of listening to,” 
said Mordaunt. 

There is that on your ain breast that proves the con- 
trary,” said Bryce resolutely. 

“ In my breast?” said Mordaunt, somewhat angrily,— 

what know I of you ?” 

“ 1 said on your breast, Maister Mordaunt, and not in 
it. I am sure nae eye that looks on that waistcoat upon 
Vour own gallant brisket, but will say, that the merchant 
*vho sold such a piece for four dollars had justice and 


THE PIRATE. 


235 


conscience, and a kind heart to a customer to the boot ot 
a’ that ; sae ye shouldna be sae thrawart wi’ me for hav 
mg spared the breath of my mouth in a fool’s quarrel.” 

“ I thrawart !” said Mordaunt ; “ pooh, you silly man ! 
I have no quarrel with you.” 

“ I am glad of it,” said the travelling merchant ; “ I 
will quarrel with no man, with my will — least of all with 
ill old customer ; and if you will walk by my advice, you 
will quarrel nane with Captain Cleveland. He is like one 
of yon cutters and slashers that have come into Kirkwall, 
that think as little of slicing a man, as we do of flinching 
a whale — it’s their trade to fight, and they live by it ; and 
fney have the advantage of the like of you, that only take 
it up at your own hand, ahd in the way of pastime, when 
you hae nothing better to do.” 

The company had now almost all dispersed ; and 
Mordaunt, laughing at the jagger’s caution, bade him 
good-night, and went to his own place of repose, which 
had been assigned to him by Eric Scambester, (who act- 
ed the part of chamberlain as well as butler,) in a small 
room, or rather closet, in one of the out-houses, furnished 
for the occasion with the hammock of a sailor. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

I pass like night from land to land, 

I have strange power of speech ; 

So soon as e’er his face I see, 

I know the man that must hear me, 

To him my tale I teach. 

Coleridges Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 

The daughters of Magnus Troil shared the same bed, 
in a chamber which had been that of their parents before 
the death of their mother. Magnus, who suffered griev- 
ously under that dispensation of Providence, had become 

11 


236 


THE PIRATE. 


disgusted with the apartment. The nuptial chamber was 
abandoned to the pledgesofhis bereaved affection, of whom 
the eldest was at that period only four years old, or there- 
abouts ; and, having been their nursery in infancy, con- 
tinued, though now tricked and adorned according to the 
best fashion of the islands, and the taste of the lovely 
sisters themselves, to be their sleeping-room, or, in tlie 
old Norse dialect, their bower. 

It had been for many years the scene of the most in- 
timate confidence, if that could be called confidence, 
where, in truth, there was nothing to be confided ; where 
neither sister had a secret ; and where everj- thought that 
had birth in the bosom of the one, was, without either 
hesitation or doubt, confided to' the other as spontaneously 
as it had arisen. But, since Cleveland abode in the man- 
sion of Burgh-Westra, each of the lovely sisters had 
entertained thoughts which are not lightly or easily com- 
municated, unless she who listens to them has previously 
assured herself that the confidence will be kindly receiv- 
ed. Minna had noticed what other and less interested 
observers had been unable to perceive, that Cleveland, 
namely, held a lower rank in Brenda’s opinion than in 
her own ; and Brenda, on her side, thought that Minna 
had hastily and unjustly joined in the prejudices which 
had been excited against Mordaunt Mertoun in the mind 
of their father. Each w'as sensible that she was no longer 
the same to her sister ; and this conviction was a painful 
addition to other painful apprehensions which they suppos- 
ed they had to struggle with. Their manner towards 
each other was, in outward appearances, and in all the 
little cares by which affection can be expressed, even more 
assiduously kind than before, as if both, conscious that 
their internal reserve was a breach of their sisterly union, 
strove to atone for it by double assiduity in those exter- 
nal marks of affection, which, at other times, when there 
was nothing to hide, might be omitted without inferring 
any consequences. 

On the night referred to in particular, the sisters felt 
more especially the decay of the confidence which used 


THE PIRATE. 


237 


to exist betwixt them. The proposed voyage to Kiih- 
wall, and that at the time of the fair, when persons of 
every degree in these islands repair thither, either for 
business or amusement, was likely to be an important inci- 
dent in lives usually so simple and uniform as theirs ; and 
a few months ago, Minna and Brenda would have been 
awake half the night, anticipating, in their talk with each 
other, all that was likely to happen on so momentous an 
occasion. But now the subject was just mentioned, and 
suffered to drop, as if the topic was likely to produce a 
difference betwixt them, or to call forth a more open dis- 
play of their several opinions than either was willing to 
make to the other. 

Yet such was their natural openness and gentleness of 
disposition, that each sister imputed to herself the fault that 
there was aught like estrangement existing between them, 
and when, having finished their devotions, and betaken 
themselves to their common couch, they folded each 
other in their arms, and exchanged a sisterly kiss, and a 
sisterly good-night, they seemed mutually to ask pardon, 
and to exchange forgiveness, although neither said a word 
of offence, either offered or received ; and both were 
soon plunged in that light and yet profound repose, which 
is only enjoyed when sleep sinks down on the eyes of 
youth and innocence. 

On the night to which the story relates, both sisters 
were visited by dreams, which, though varied by the 
moods and habits of the sleepers, bore yet a strange gen 
eral resemblance to each other. 

Minna dreamed that she was in one of the most lonel} 
recesses of the beach, called Swartaster, where the in 
cessant operation of the waves, indenting a calcareou 
rock, has formed a deep halier, which, in the languagt - 
of the island, means a subterranean cavern, into which 
the tide ebbs and flows. Many of these run to an exti?.- 
ordinary and unascertained depth under ground, and 
the secure retreat of cormorants and seals, which it is 
ther easy nor safe to pursue to their extreme recesses. 
Amongst these, this halier of Swartaster was accounted 


238 


THE PIRATE. 


peculiarly inaccessible, and shunned both by fowlers and 
by seamen, on account of sharp angles and turnings in the 
cave itself, as well as the sunken rocks which rendered 
it very dangerous for skiffs or boats to advance far into 
it, especially if there was the usual swell of an island 
tide. From the dark-browed mouth of this cavern, it 
seemed to Minna, in her dream, that she beheld a mer- 
maid issue, not in the classical dress of a Nereid, as in 
Claud Halcro’s mask of the preceding evening, but with 
comb and glass in hand according to popular belief, and 
lashing the waves with that long scaly train, which, in the 
traditions of the country, form so frightful a contrast with 
the fair face, long tresses, and displayed bosom, of a 
human and earthly female, of surpassing beauty. She 
seemed to beckon to Minna, while her wild notes rang 
sadly in her ear, and denounced, in prophetic sounds, 
calamity and wo. 

The vision of Brenda was of a different description 
yet equally melancholy. She sat, as she thought, in her 
favourite bower, surrounded by her father and a party oi 
his most beloved friends, amongst whom Mordaunt Mer- 
toun was not forgotten. She was required to sing ; and 
she strove to entertain them with a lively ditty, in which 
she was accounted eminently successful, and which she 
sung with such simple, yet natural humour, as seldom 
failed to produce shouts of laughter and applause, while 
all who could, or who could not sing, were irresistibly com- 
pelled to lend their voices to the chorus. But, on this 
occasion, it seemed as if her own voice refused all its usual 
duty, and as if, while she felt herself unable to express 
the words of the well-known air, it assumed, in her own 
despite, the deep tones and wild and melancholy notes 
of Norna of Fitful-head, for the purpose of chanting 
some wild Runic rhyme, resembling those sung by the 
heathen priests of old, when the victim (too often human) 
was bound to the fatal altar of Odin or of Thor. 

At length the two sisters at once started from sleep 
and, uttering a low scream of fear, clasped themselves 
in each other’s arms. For their fancy had not altogetiiev 


THE PIRATE. 


iJ39 

played them false ; the sounds, which had suggested their 
dreams, were real, and sung within their apartment. 
They knew the voice well, indeed, and yet, knowing to 
whom it belonged, their surprise and fear were scarce tlie 
less, when they saw the well-known Norna of Fitful- 
head, seated by the chimney of the apartment, which, 
during the summer season, contained an iron lamp well 
trimmed, and, in winter, a fire of wood or of turf. 

She was wrapped in her long and ample garment of 
wadmaal, and moved her body slowly to and fro over 
the pale flame of the lamp, as she sung lines to the 
following purport, in a slow, sad, and almost an unearthly 
accent : 


For leagues along the watery way, 

Through gulph and stream my course has been ; 

The billows know my Runic lay, 

And smooth’d their crests to silent green. 

' The billows know my Runic lay, — 

The gulph grows smooth, the stream is still ; 

But human hearts, more wild than they, 

Know but the rule of wayward will. 

" One hour is mine, in all the year, 

I’o tell my woes, and one alone ; 

When gleams this magic lamp, 'tis here, — 

W^hen dies the mystic light 'tis gone. 

" Daughters of northern Magnus, hail ! 

• The lamp is lit, the flame is clear, — 

To you I come to tell my tale. 

Awake, arise, my tale to hear !" 

Norna was well known to the daughters of Troil, but 
it was not without emotion, although varied by their re- 
spective dispositions, that they beheld her so unexpect- 
edly, and at such an hour. Their opinions with respect 
to the supernatural attributes to which she pretended, 
were extremely different. 

Minna, with an unusual intensity of imagination, al- 
though superior in talent to her sister, was more apt to 


240 


THE PIRATE. 


listen to, and delight in, every tale of wonder, and was 
at all times more willing to admit impressions which gave 
her fancy scope and exercise, without minutely examin- 
ing their reality. Brenda, on the other hand, had, in her 
gaiety, a slight propensity to satire^ and was often tempted 
to laugh at the very circumstances upon which Minna 
founded her imaginative dreams 5 and, like all who love 
the ludicrous, she did notreadily suffer herself to be impos- 
ed upon, or overawed, by pompous pretensions of any kind 
whatever. But, as her nerves were weaker and more 
irritable than those of her sister, she often paid involun- 
tary homage, by her fears, to ideas which her reason 
disowned ; and hence Claud Halcro used to say, in ref- 
erence to many of the traditionary superstitions around 
Burgh-Westra that Minna believed them without trem- 
bling, and that Brenda trembled without believing them. 
In our own more enlightened days, there are few whose 
Lindoubting mind and native courage have not felt Minna’s 
high-wrought tone of enthusiasm ; and perhaps still fewer, 
who have not, at one time or other, felt, like Brenda 
their nerves confess the influence of terrors which their 
reason disowned and despised. 

Under the power of such different feelings, Minna, 
when the first moment of surprise w^as over, prepared to 
spring from her bed, and go to greet Norna, who, she 
doubted not, had come on some errand fraught with fate ; 
while Brenda, who only beheld in her a Woman partially 
deranged in her understanding, and who yet, fron^ the 
extravagance of her claims, regarded her as an undefined 
object of awe, or rather terror, detained her sister by an 
eager and terrified grasp, while she whispered in her ear an 
anxious entreaty that she would call for assistance. But 
the soul of Minna was too highly wrought up by the cri- 
sis at which her fate seemed to have arrived, to permit 
iier to follow the dictates of her sister’s fears ; and, ex- 
tr’cating herself from Brenda’s hold, she hastily threw 
on a loose night-gown, and, stepping boldly across the 
apartment, while her heart throbbed rather with high 


THE PIRATE. 


211 


excitement than with fear, she thus addressed her singu- 
lar visiter : — 

“ Norna, if your mission regards us, as your words 
seem to express, there is one of us, at least, who will re- 
ceive its import with reverence, but without fear.” 

“ Norna, dear Norna,” said the tremulous voice of 
Brenda, — who, feeling no safety in the bed after Min- 
na quitted it, had followed her, as fugitives crowd into 
tile rear of an advancing army, because they dare not 
remain behind, and who now stood half concealed by 
her sister, and holding fast by the skirts of her gown, — 
“ Norna, dear Norna,” said she, “ whatever you are to 
say, let it be to-morrow. I will call Euphane F ea the 
housekeeper, and she will find you a bed for the night.” 

“ No bed for me!” said their nocturnal visiter ; “ nc 
closing of the eyes for me 1 they have watched as shelf 
and stack appeared and disappeared betwixt Burgh-Wes- 
tra and Orkney — ^they have seen the Man of Hoy sink 
into the sea, and the Peak of Hengcliff arise from it, 
and yet they have not tasted of slumber ; nor must they 
slumber now till my task is ended. Sit down, then, 
Minna, and thou, silly trembler, sit down, while I trim 
my lamp — Don your clothes, for the tale is long, and ere 
his done, ye will shiver with worse than cold.” 

For Heaven’s sake, then, put it off till day-light, dear 
Norna,” said Brenda ; “ the dawn cannot be far distant j 
and if you are to tell us of anything frightful, let it be by 
day-light, and not by the dim glimmer of that blue lamp I’ 

“ Patience, fool !” said their uninvited guest. “ Not by 
day-light should Norna tell a tale that might blot the sun out 
of heaven, and blight the hopes of the hundred boats that 
will leave this shore ere noon, to commence their deep- 
sea fishing, — ay, and of the hundred families that will 
await their return. The demon, whom the sounds will 
not fail to awaken, must shake his dark wings over a 
shipless and a boatless sea, as he rushes from his moun- 

VOL. I. 


242 


THE PIRATE. 


tain to drink the accents of horror he loves so well to 
listen to.” 

‘‘ Have pity on Brenda’s fears, good Norna,” said the 
elder sister, “ and at least postpone this frightful com- 
munication to another place and hour.” 

“ Maiden, no !” replied Norna, sternly ; ‘‘ it must be 
told while that lamp yet burns. Mine is no day -light 
tale — by that lamp it must be told, which is framed out 
of the gibbet irons of the cruel Lord of Wodensvoe, 
who murdered his brother; and has for its nourish- 
ment but be that nameless enough that its food 

never came either from the fish or from the fruit ! — ■ 
See, it waxes dim and dimmer, nor must my tale 
last longer than its flame endureth. Sit ye down there, 
while I sit here opposite to you, and place the lamp be- 
twixt us ; for within the sphere of its light the demon 
dares not venture.” 

The sisters obeyed, Minna casting a slow, awestruck, 
yet determined look all around, as if to see the Being, 
who, according to the doubtful words of Norna, hovered 
in their neighbourhood ; while Brenda’s fears were min- 
gled with some share both of anger and of impatience. 
Norna paid no attention to either, but began her story in 
the following words : — 

“ Ye know, my daughters, that your blood is allied to 
mine, but in what degree ye know not ; for there was 
early hostility betwixt your grandsire and him who had 
the misfortune to call me daughter. — Let me term him 
hy his Christian name of Erland, for that which marks our 
relation I dare not bestow. Your grandsire Olave was 
the brother of Erland. But when the wide Udal posses- 
sions of their father Rolfe Troil, the most rich and well 
estated of any who descended from the old Norse stock, 
were divided betwixt the brothers, the Fowd gave to 
Eiland his father’s lands in Orkney, and reserved for 
Olave those of Hialtland. Discord arose between the 
brethren ; for Erland held that he was wronged, and 


THE PIRATE 


243 


when the Lawting,* with the Raddmen and Law-right- 
men, confirmed the division, he went in wrath to Orkney, 
cursing Hialtland, and its inhabitants — cursing his brother 
and his blood. 

But the love of the rock and of the mountain still 
wrought on Erland’s mind, and he fixed his dwelling not 
on the soft hills of Ophir, or the green plains of Grame- 
sey, but in the wild and mountainous Isle of Hoy, whose 
summit rises to the sky like the cliffs of Foulah and of 
Feroe.f He knew, — that unhappy Erland, — whatever 
of legendary lore Scald and Bard had left behind them ; 
and to teach me that knowledge, which was to cost us both 
so dear, was the chief occupation of his old age. I learn- 
ed to visit each lonely barrow — each lofty cairn — to tell 
its appropriate tale, and to soothe with rhymes in his praise 
the spirit of the stern warrior who dwelt within. I knew 
where the sacrifices were made of yore to Thor and to 
Odin, on what stones the blood of the victims flowed — 
wliere stood the dark-browed priest — where the crested 
chiefs, who consulted the will of the idol — where the 
more distant crowd of inferior worshippers, who looked 
on in awe or in terror. The places most shunned by the 
timid peasants, had no terrors for me ; I dared walk in 
the fairy circle, and sleep by the magic spring. 

“ But, for my misfortune, 1 was chiefly found to linger 
td,)out the Dwarfie Stone, as it is called, a relic of antiqui- 
ty, which strangers look on with curiosity, and the natives 
with awe. It is a huge fragment ofa rock, which lies 
in a broken and rude valley, full of stones and precipices, 
in the recesses of the Ward-hill of Hoy. The inside of 


* The Lawting’ was the Comitia, or Supreme Court of the country, being 
retained both in Orkney and Zetland, and presenting’, in its constitution, the 
rude origin of a parliament. 

t And" from which hill of Hoy, at midsummer, the sun may be seen, it is 
laid, at midnight. So says the geographer Bleau, althoigh, according tc 
J)r. Wallace, it cannot be the true body of the sun wh.ch is visible, but 
aiily its image refracted through some -watery claud upon 'the horizon. 


244 


THE PIRATE. 


the rock has two couches, hewn by no earthly hand, and 
having a small passage between them. The door-way is 
now open to the weather ; but beside it lies a large stone, 
which, adapted to grooves still visible in the entrance, once 
had served to open and to close this extraordinary dwel 
ling, which Trolld, a dwarf famous in the northern Sa 
gas, is said to have framed for his own favourite res- 
idence. The lonely shepherd avoids the place, for at 
sun-rise, high noon, or sun-set, the misshapen form of the 
necromantic owner may sometimes still be seen sitting by 
the Dwarfie Stone. ^ I feared not the apparition, for, 
Minna, my heart was as bold, and my hand was as inno- 
cent, as yours. In my childish courage, I was even but too 
presumptuous, and the thirst after things unattainable led 
me like our primitive mother, to desire increase of know- 
ledge, even by prohibited means. I longed to possess the 
power of the Voluspse and divining women of our ancient 
race ; to wield, like them, command over the elements 
and to summon the ghosts of deceased heroes from their 
caverns, that they might recite their daring deeds, and 
impart to me their hidden treasures. Often when watch- 
ing by the Dwarfie Stone, with mine eyes fixed on the 
Ward-hill, which rises above that gloomy valley, I have 
distinguished, among the dark rocks, that wonderful car- 
buncle,* which gleams ruddy as a furnace to them who 
view it from beneath, but has ever become invisible to 
him whose daring foot has scaled the precipices from 
which it darts its splendour. My vain and youthful bo- 


* “ At the west end of this stone; {i. c. the Dwarfie Stone,) stands an ex- 
ceeding high mountain of a steep ascent, called the Ward-Hill of Hoy, near 
the top of which, in the months of May, June, and July, about midnight, is 
Been something that shines and sparkles admirably, and which is often seen 
a great way off. It hath shined more brightly before than it does now, and 
though nany have climbed up the hill, and attempted to search for it, yet 
they could find nothing. The vulgar talk of it as some enchanted carbun 
cle, but I take it rather to be some water sliding down the face of a smooth 
rock, which, when the sun, at such a time, shines upon the reflection causeth 
that admirable splendour."-— Dr. Wallace’s Description cf the TsUnds o, 
Orkney, 12mo. 1700. p. 52. 


THE PIRATE. 


245 


som ourned -o investigate these and an hundred other 
mysteries, which the Sagas that I perused, or learned 
from Erland, rather indicated than explained 5 and in rny 
daring mood, I called on the Lord of the Dwarfie Stone 
to aid me in attaining knowledge inaccessible to mere 
mortals.’’ 

‘‘ And the evil spirit heard your summons?” said Min- 
na, her blood curdling as she listened. 

“ Hush,” said Norna, lowering her voice, “ vex him 
not with reproach — he is with us — he hears us even now.” 

Brenda started from her seat. — “ I will to Euphane 
Fea’s chamber,” she said, “ and leave you, Minna and 
Norna, to finish your stories of hobgoblins and of dwarfs 
at your own leisure ; I care not for them at any time, but 
I will not endure them at midnight, and by this pale 
lamplight.” 

She was accordingly in the act of leaving the room, 
when her sister detained her. 

“ Is this the courage,” she said, ‘‘ of her, that disbe-. 
lieves whatever the history of our fathers tells us of su- 
pernatural prodigy ? What Norna has to tell concerns the 
fate, perhaps, of our father and his house — if I can listen 
to it, trusting that God and my innocence will protect me 
from all that is malignant, you, Brenda, who believe 
not in such influence, have surely no cause to trem- 
ble. Credit me, that for the guiltless there is no 
fear.” 

“ There may be no danger,” said Brenda, unable to 
suppress her natural turn for humour, “ but, as the old 
jest book says, there is much fear. However, Minna, I 
will stay with you ; — the rather,” she added, in a whis- 
per, “ that I am loath to leave you alone with this fright- 
ful woman, and that I have a dark staircase and long 
pass?ge betwixt and Euphane Fea, else I would have her 
here ere I were five minutes older.” 

‘‘ Call no one hither, maiden, upon peril of thy life,” 
said Norna, “ and interrupt not my tale again ; for it 

VOL. T. 


246 


THE PIRATE. 


cannot and must not be told after that charmed light has 
ceased to burn.” 

“ And I thank Heaven,” said Brenda to herself, “ that 
the oil burns low in the cruise ! I am sorely tempted to 
lend it a puff, but then Norna would be alone with us in 
the dark, and that would be worse.” 

So saying, she submitted to her fate, and sat down, 
determined to listen with all the equanimity which she 
could command to the remaining part of Noma’s tale, 
which went on as follows : — 

“ It happened on a hot summer day, and just about the 
hour of noon,” continued Norna, “ as I sat by the 
Dvvarfie Stone, with my eyes fixed on the Ward-hill, 
whence the mysterious and ever-burning carbuncle shed 
Us rays more brightly than usual, and repined in my heart 
at the restricted bounds of human knowledge, that at 
length I could not help exclaiming, in the words of an 
ancient Saga, 

“ Dwellers of the mountain, rise, 

Troild the powerful, Haims the wise ! 

Ye who taught weak woman’s tongue 
Words that sway the wise and strong^ — 

Ye who taught weak woman’s hand 
How to wield the magic wand, 

And wake the gales on Foulah’s steep. 

Or lull wild Sumburgh’s waves to sleep ! — 

Still are ye yet ? — Not yours the power ' 

Ye knew in Odin’s mightier hour. 

What are ye now but empty names. 

Powerful Troild, sagacious Haims, 

That, lightly spoken, lightly heard. 

Float on the air like thistle’s beard V’ 

“ I had scarce uttered these words,” proceeded Norna^ 
ere the sky, which had been till then unusually clear, 
grew so suddenly dark around me, that it seemed more 
like midnight than noon. A single flash of lightning 
showed me at once the desolate landscape of heath, mo- 
rass, mountain, and precipice, which lay around ; a sin- 
gle clap of thunder wakened all the echoes of the Ward 


THE PIRATE. 


247 


hill, which continued so long to repeat the sound, that it 
seemed some rock, rent by the thunderbolt from the sum- 
mit, was rolling over cliff and precipice into the valley. 
Immediately after, fell a burst of rain so violent that 
I was fain to shun its pelting by creeping into the interior 
of the mysterious stone. 

“ I seated myself on the larger stone couch, which is 
cut at the farther end of the cavity, and, with my eyes 
fixed on the smaller bed, wearied myself with conjectures 
respecting the origin and purpose of my singular place of 
refuge. Had it been really the work of that powerful 
Trolld, to whom the poetry of the Scalds referred it ? 
Or was it the tomb of some Scandinavian chief, interred 
with his arms and his wealth, perhaps also with his immo- 
lated wife, that what he loved best in life might not in 
death be divided from him ? Or was it the abode of pen- 
ance, chosen by some devoted anchorite of later days ? 
Or the idle work of some wandering mechanic, whom 
rJiance, and whim, and leisure, had thrust upon such an 
undertaking ? I tell you the thoughts that then floated 
through my brain, that ye may know that what ensued 
was not the vision of a prejudiced or prepossessed imagi- 
nation, but an apparition, as certain as it was awful. 

“ Sleep had gradually crept on me, amidst my lucu- 
brations, when I was startled from my slumbers by a se- 
cond clap of thunder ; and, when I awoke, I saw, through 
the dim light which the upper aperture admitted, the un- 
shapely and indistinct form of Trolld the dwarf, seated 
opposite to me on the lesser couch, which his square and 
misshapen bulk seemed absolutely to fill up. I was 
startled, but not affrighted ; for the blood of the ancient 
race of Lochlin was warm in my veins. He spoke ; and 
nis words were of Norse, so old, that few, save my father, 
or I myself, could have comprehended their import, — > 
such language as was spoken in these islands ere Olave 
planted the cross on the ruins of heathenism. His mean- 
ing was dark also and obscure, like that which the Pagan 
priests were wont to deliver, in the name of their idols. 


248 


THE PIRATE 


to the tribes that assembled at the HelgafelsJ^ This was 
the import, — 

s " A thousand \vinlers dark have flown, 

Since o'er the threshold of my stone 
A votaress pass’d, my power to own. 

• Visiter bold 

Of the mansion of Trolld, 

Maiden haughty of heart, 

Who hast hither presum’d. 

Ungifted, undoom’d. 

Thou shall not depart ; 

The power thou dost covet 
O’er tempest and wave. 

Shall be thine, thou proud maiden. 

By beach and by cave, — 

By slack* and by skerry ,t by noup,t and by voe,^ 

By airIT and by wick,]] and by helyer** and gio,ft 
And by every wild shore which the northern winds know. 

And the northern tides lave. 

But though this shall be given thee, thou desperately brave, 

I doom thee that never the gift thou shall have. 

Till thou reave thy life’s giver 
Of the gift which he gave.” 

“ I answered him in nearly the same strain ; for the 
spirit of the ancient Scalds of our race was upon me, and, 
far from fearing the phantom, with whom I sat cooped 
within so narrow a space, I felt the impulse of that high 
courage which thrust the ancient Champions and Druid- 
esses upon contests with the invisible world, when they 
thought that the earth no longer contained enemies worthy 


* Or consecrated mountain, used by the Scandinavian priests, for the pur- 
poses of their idol-worship. 

* Stack. A precipitous rock, rising out of the sea. 

t Skerry. A flat insulated rock, not subject to the overflowing of the sea 
X Noup. A round-headed eminence. 

$ Voe. A creek, or irilet of the sea. 

IT Air. An open sea-beach. 

11 Wick. An open bay. 

** Helyer. A cavern into which the tide flows 
tt Gio. A deep ravine which admits the sea. 


THE riRATE. 


249 


to be subdued by them. Therefore did I answer hm, 
thus : — 

“ Dark are thy words, and severe, 

Thou dweller in the stone ; 

But trembling and fear 
To her are unknown, 

Who hath sought thee here. 

In thy dwelling lone. 

Come what comes soever. 

The worst I can endure ; 

Life is but a short fever. 

And Death is the cure.” 

“ The demon scowled at me, as if at once incensed 
and overawed ; and then, coiling himself up in a thick 
and sulphureous vapour, he disappeared from his place. 
I did not, till that moment, feel the influence of fright, but 
then It seized me. I rushed into the open air, where the 
tempest had passed away, and all was pure and serene. 
After a moment’s breathless pauses I hasted home, mus- 
ing by the way on the words of the phantom, which I could 
not, as often happens, recall so distinctly to memory at the 
time, as I have been able to do since. 

‘‘ It may seem strange that such an apparition should, 
in time, have glided from my mind, like a vision of the 
night— but so it was. I brought myself to believe it the 
work of fancy — I thought I had lived too much in soli 
tilde, and had given way too much to the feelings inspired 
by my favourite studies. I abandoned ^them for a time, 
and I mixed with the youth of my age. I was upon a 
visit at Kirkwall when I learned to know your father, 
whom business had brought thither. He easily found 
access to the relation with wdiom I lived, who was anx- 
ious to compose, if possible, the feud which divided our 
families. Your father, maidens, has been rather harden- 
ed than changed by years — he had the same manly form, 
the same old Norse frankness of manner and of heart, 
the same upright courage and honesty of disposition, with 
more of the gentle ingenuousness of youth, an eager de- 
sire to please, a willingness to be ’^leased, and a vivacity 


250 


THE PIRATE. 


of spirits which survives not our early years. But though 
he was thus worthy of love, and though Erland wrote to 
me, authorizing his attachment, there was another — a 
stranger, Minna, a fatal stranger — full of arts unknown to 
us, and graces, which to the plain manners of your fathei 
were unknown. Yes, he walked, indeed, among us like a 
being of another and of a superior race. — Ye look on me 
as if it vvere strange that I should have had attractions for 
such a lover; but I present nothing that can remind you 
that Noma of the Fitful-head was once admired and loved 
as Ulla Troil — the change betwixt the animated body 
and the corpse after decease, is scarce more awful and 
absolute than I have sustained, while I yet linger on earth. 
Look on me, maidens — look on me by this glimmering 
light — Can ye believe that these haggard and weather- 
wasted features — these eyes, which have been almost 
converted to stone, by looking upon sights of terror— 
these locks, that, mingled with grey, now stream out, the 
shattered pennons of a sinking vessel — that these, and she 
to whom they belong, could once be the objects of fond 
affection ? — But the waning lamp sinks fast, and let it sink 
while I tell my infamy. — We loved in secret, we met in 
secret, till I gave the last proof of fatal and of guilty pas 
sion ! — And now beam out, thou magic glimmer — shine 
out a little space, thou flame so powerful even in thy fee- 
bleness — bid him who hovers near us, keep his dark 
pinions aloof from the circle thou dost illuminate — live 
but a little till th*e worst be told, and then sink when thou 
wilt into darkness, as black as my guilt and sorrow !” 

While she spoke thus, she drew together the remaining 
nutriment of the lamp, and trimmed its decaying flame ; 
then again, with a hollow voice, and in broken sentences, 
pursued her narrative. 

“ I must waste little time in words. My love was dis- 
covered, but not my guilt. Erland came to Pomona in 
anger, and transported me to our solitary dwelling in 
Hoy. He commanded me to see my lover no more, and 
to receive Magnus, in whom he was willing to forgive the 
offences of his father, as my future husband. Alas ! I 


THE PIRATE. 


251 


ao longer deserved his attachment — my only wish was to 
escape from my father’s dwelling, to conceal my shame in 
my lover’s arms. Let me do him justice — he was faith- 
ful — too, too faithful — his perfidy would have bereft me 
of my senses ; but the fatal consequences of his’ fidelity 
have done me a tenfold injury.” 

She paused, and then resumed with the wild tone of 
insanity, “ It has made me the powerful and the despair- 
ing Sovereign of the Seas and Winds !” 

She paused a second time after this wild exclamation, 
and resumed her narrative in a more composed manner. 

“ My lover came in secret to Hoy, to concert meas- 
ures for my flight, and I agreed to meet him, that we 
might fix the time when his vessel should come into the 
Sound. I left the house at midnight.” 

Here she appeared to gasp with agony, and went on 
with her tale by broken and interrupted sentences. “ 1 
left the house at midnight — I had to pass my father’*, 
door, and I perceived it was open — I thought he watched 
us, and, that the sound of my steps might not break his 
slumbers, I closed the fatal door — a light and trivial action 
— but, God in Heaven ! what were the consequences ! — 
At morn, the room was full of suffocating vapour — my 
father was dead — dead through my act — dead through 
my disobedience — dead through my infamy ! All that 
follows is mist and darkness — a choking, suffocating, 
stifling mist envelopes all that I said and did, all that was 
said and done, until I became assured that my doom was 
accomplished, and walked forth the calm and terrible 
being you now behold me — the Queen of the Elements 
— the sharer in the power of those beings to whom man 
and his passions give such sport as the tortures of the 
dog-fish afford the fisherman, when he pierces his eyes 
with thorns, and turns him once more into his native ele- 
ment, to traverse the waves in blindness and agony .30 
No, maidens, she whom you see before you is impas- 
sive to the follies of which your minds are the sport. 

I am she that have made the offering — I am she that 
bereaved the giver of the gift of life which he gave me 
— the dark saying has been interpreted by my deed. 


252 


THE PIRATE. 


and I am tfiken from humanity, to be something preemi 
nently powerful, preeminently wretched !” As she spoko 
thus, the light, which had been long quivering, leaped high 
for an instant, and seemed about to expire, when Norna, 
interrupting herself, said hastily, “ No more now — he 
comes — he comes — Enough that ye know me, and the 
right I have to advise and command you. — Approach 
now, proud Spirit ! if thou wilt.’’ 

So saying, she extinguished the lamp, and passed out 
of the apartment with her usual loftiness of step, as Minna 
could observe from its measured cadence. 


CHAPTER XX. 


Is all the counsel that we two have shared — 

The sisters’ vows, the hours that we have spent 
When we have chid the hasty -footed time 
For parting us — O, and is all forgot ? 

Midsummer- Night’s Drejtn. 

The attention of Minna was powerfully arrested bv 
this tale of terror, which accorded with and explained 
many broken hints respecting Norna, which she had heard 
from her father and other near relations, and she was for 
a time so lost in surprise, not unmingled with horror, that 
she did not even attempt to speak to her sister Brenda. 
When, at length, she called her by her name, she receiv- 
ed no answer, and, on touching her hand, she found it 
cold as ice. Alarmed to the uttermost, she threw open 
the lattice and the window-shutters, and admitted at once 
the free air and the pale glimmer of the hyperborean 
summer night. She then became sensible that her sister 
was in a swoon. All thoughts concerning Norna, her 
frightful tale, and her mysterious connection with the in- 
visible world, at once vanished from Minna’s thoughts, 


THE PIRATE. 


253 


and sh3 hastily ran to the apartment of the old house- 
keeper, to summon her aid, without reflecting for a mo 
ment what sights she might encounter in the long dark 
passages which she had to traverse. 

The old woman hastened to Brenda’s assistance, and 
instantly applied such remedies as her experience sug- 
gested ; but the poor girl’s nervous system had been so 
much agitated by the horrible tale she Irad just heard, 
that, when recovered from her swoon, her utmost endea- 
vours to compose her mind could not prevent her falling 
into a hysterical fit of some duration. This also was 
vSLibdued by the experience of old Euphane Fea, who 
was well versed in all the simple pharmacy used by the 
natives of Zetland, and who, after administering a com- 
posing draught, distilled from simples and wild flowers, at 
length saw her patient resigned to sleep. Minna stretch- 
ed herself beside her sister, kissed her cheek, and courted 
slumber in her turn ; but the more she invoked it, the 
farther it seemed to fly from her eyelids ; and if at times 
she was disposed to sink into repose, the voice of the in- 
voluntary parricide seemed again to sound in her ears, 
and startled her into consciousness. 

The early morning hour at which they were accustom- 
ed to rise, found the state of the sisters different from 
what might have been expected. A sound sleep had re- 
stored the spirit of Brenda’s lightsome eye, and the rose 
on her laughing cheek ; the transient indisposition of the 
preceding night having left as little trouble on her look, as 
the fantastic terrors of Norna’s tale had been able to im- 
press on her imagination. The looks of Minna, on the 
contrary were melancholy, downcast, and apparently 
exhausted by watching and anxiety. They said at first 
little to each other, as if afraid of touching a subject so 
fraught with emotion as the scene of the preceding night. 
It was not until they had performed together their devo- 
tions, as usual, that Brenda, while lacing Minna’s bod- 
ice, (for they rendered the services of the toilet to each 
other reciprocally,) became aware of the paleness of her 

VOL. I. 


254 


THE PIRATE. 


sister’s looks ; and having ascertained, by a glance at the 
mirror, that her own did not wear the same dejection, she 
kissed Minna’s cheek, and said affectionately, “ Claud 
Halcro was right, my dearest sister, when- his poetical 
folly gave us these names of Night and Day.” 

“ And wherefore should you say so now ?” said Minna. 

“ Because we each are bravest in the season that we 
take our name from : I was frightened well nigh to death, 
by hearing those things last night, which you endured with 
courageous firmness ; and now, when it is broad light, I 
can think of them with composure, while you look as pale 
as a spirit who is surprised by sunrise.” 

You are lucky, Brenda,” said -her sister, gravely, 
“ who can so soon forget such a tale of wonder and 
horror.” 

“ The horror,” said Brenda, “ is never to be forgot- 
ten, unless one could hope that the unfortunate woman’s 
excited imagination, which shows itself so active in con- 
juring up apparitions, may have fixed on her an imagina- 
ry crime.” 

“ You believe nothing, then,” said Minna, “ of her 
interview at the Dwarfie Stone, that wondrous place, of 
which so many tales are told, and which, for so many 
centuries, has been reverenced as the work of a demon, 
and as his abode ?” 

“ I believe,” said Brenda, “ that our unhappy relative 
is no impostor, — and therefore I believe that she was at 
the Dwarfie Stone during a thunder-storm, that she sought 
shelter in it, and that, during a swoon, or during sleep, 
perhaps, some dream visited her, concerned with the pop- 
ular traditions, with which she was so conversant ; but I 
cannot easily believe more.” 

“ And yet the event,” said Minna, ‘‘ corresponded to 
the dark intimations of the vision.” 

“ Pardon me,” said Brenda, “ I rather think the dream 
would never have been put into shape, or perhaps remem- 
bered at all, but for the event. She told us herself she 
had nearly forgot the vision, till after her father’s dread- 
ful death. — and who shall warrant how much of what she 


THE PIRATE. 


255 


then supposed herself to rememher was not the creation 
of her own fancy, disordered as it naturally was hy the 
horrid accident ? Had she really seen and conversed with 
a necromantic dwarf, she was likely to rememher the con- 
versation long enough — at least I am sure I should.” 

“ Brenda,” replied Minna, ‘‘ you have heard the good 
minister of the Cross-Kirk say, that human wisdom was 
worse than folly, when it was applied to mysteries beyond 
its comprehension 5 and that if we believed no more than 
we could understand, we should resist the evidence of our 
senses, which presented us at every turn, — circumstances 
as certain as they were unintelligible.” 

“ You are too learned yourself, sister,” answered Bren- 
da, ‘‘ to need the, assistance of the good minister of Cross 
Kirk ; but I think his doctrine only related to the myste- 
ries of our religion, which it is our duty to receive without 
investigation or doubt — but in things occurring in com- 
mon life, as God has bestowed reason upon us, we cannot 
act wrong in employing it. But you, my dear Minna, 
have a warmer fancy than mine, and are willing to receive 
all those wonderful stories for truth, because you love to 
think of sorcerers, and dwarfs, and water-spirits, and 
would like much to have a little trow, or fairy, as the 
Scotch call them, with a green coat, and a pair of wings 
as brilliant as the hues of the starling’s neck, specially to 
attend on you.” 

“ It would spare you at least the trouble of lacing my 
bodice,” said Minna, and of lacing it wrong too ; for, 
in the heat of your argument, you have missed two eye* 
let-holes.” 

“ That error shall be presently mended,” said Brenda , 
‘‘ and then, as one of our friends might say, I will haul 
tight and belay — but you draw your breath so deeply, 
that it will be a difficult matter.” 

“ I only sighed,” said Minna, in some confusion, ‘‘ to 
think how soon you can trifle with and ridicule the mis- 
fortunes of this extraordinary woman.” 

‘‘ I do not ridicule them, God knows!” replied Brenda, 
somewhat angrily ; “ it is you, Minna, who turn all T say 


256 


THE PIRATE. 


n truth and kindness, to something harsh or wicked. I 
look on Norna as a woman of very extraordinary abilities-, 
which are very often united with a strong cast of in- 
sanity ; and I consider her as better skilled in the signs 
of the weather than any woman in Zetland. But that she 
has any power over the elements, I no more believe, than 
I do in the nursery stories of King Erick, who could 
make the wind blow from the point he set his cap to.” 

Minna, somewhat nettled with the obstinate incredulity 
of her sister, replied sharply, ‘‘ And yet, Brenda, this 
woman — half-mad woman, and the veriest impostor, is 
the person by whom you choose to be advised in the mat- 
ter next your own heart at this moment!” 

“ I do not know what you mean,” said Brenda, colour- 
ing deeply, and shifting to get away from her sister. But 
as she was now undergoing the ceremony of being laced 
in her turn, her sister had the means of holding her fast 
by the silken string with which she was fastening the bod- 
ice, and, tapping her on the neck, which expressed, by 
its sudden writhe, and sudden change to a scarlet hue, as 
much pettish confusion as she had desired to provoke, she 
added, more mildly, “ Is it not strange, Brenda, that, 
used as we have been by the stranger Mordaunt Mertoun, 
whose assurance has brought him uninvited to a house 
where his presence is so unacceptable, you should still 
look or think of him with favour ? Surely that you do so 
should' be a proof to you, that there are such things as 
spells in the country, and that you yourself labour under 
them. It is not for nought that Mordaunt wears a chain 
of elfin gold — look to it, Brenda, and be wise in time.” 

“ I have nothing to do with Mordaunt Mertoun,” an- 
swered Brenda, hastily, “ nor do I know or care what he 
or any other young man wears about his neck. I could 
see all the gold chains of all the bailies of Edinburgh, 
that Lady Glowrowrum speaks so much of, without falling 
in fancy with one of the wearers.” And, having thus 
complied with the female rule of pleading not guilty ir 
general to such an indictment, she immediately resumed 
ill a different tone, “ But, to say the truth, Minna, I think 


THE PIRATE. 


257 


you, and all of you, have judged far too hastily about this 
young friend of our’s, who has been so long our most in- 
timate companion. Mind, Mordaunt Mertoun is no more 
to me than he is to you — who best know how little 
difference he made betwixt us ; and that, chain or no 
chain, he lived with us like a brother with two sisters ; 
and yet you can turn him off at once, because a wander- 
ing seaman, of whom we know nothing, and a peddling 
jagger, whom we do know to be a thief, a cheat, and a 
liar, speak words and carry tales in his disfavour ! I do 
not believe he ever said he could have his choice of either 
of us, and only waited to see which was to have Burgh- 
Westra, and Bredness Voe — I do not believe he ever 
spoke such a word, or harboured such a thought, as that 
of making a choice between us.” 

“ Perhaps,” said Minna, coldly, “ you may have had 
reason to know that his choice was already determined.” 

“ I will not endure this!” said Brenda, giving way to 
her natural vivacity, and springing from between her sis- 
ter’s hands ; then turning round and facing her, while 
her glowing cheek was rivalled in the deepness of its crim- 
son, by as much of her neck and bosom as the upper part 
of the half-laced bodice permitted to be visible, — “ Even 
from you, Minna,” she said, I will not endure this ! 
You know that all my life I have spoken the truth, and 
that I love the truth ; and I tell you, that Mordaunt Mer- 
toiin never in his life made distinction betwixt you and 
me, until ” 

Here some feeling of consciousness stopped her short, 
and her sister replied, with a smile, “ Until when, Bren- 
da ? Methinks, your love of truth seems choked with the 
sentence you were bringing out.” 

“ Until you ceased to do him the justice he deserves,” 
said Brenda, firmly, “ since I must speak out. I have 
little doubt that he will not long throw away his friendship 
on you, who hold it so lightly.” 

“ Be it so,” said Minna ; you are secure from my 
rivalry, either in his friendship or love. But bethink you 

VOL. I. 


258 


THE PIRATE. 


better, Brenda — ^this is no scandal of Cleveland’s — Cleve 
land is incapable of slander — no falsehood of Bryce 
Snailsfoot — not one of our friends or acquaintance but 
says it has been the common talk of the island, that 
the daughters of Magnus Troil were patiently awaiting 
the choice of the nameless and birthless stranger, Mor- 
daunt Mertoun. Is it fitting that this should be said of 
us, the descendants of a Norwegian Jarl, and the daugh- 
ters of the first Udaller in Zetland ? or, would it be mod- 
est or maidenly to submit to it unresented, were we the 
meanest lasses that ever lifted a milk-pail ?” 

“ The tongues of fools are no reproach,” replied Bren- 
da, warmly ; “ I will never quit my own thoughts of an 
innocent friend for the gossip of the island, which can put 
the worst meaning on the most innocent actions.” 

“ Hear but what our friends say,” repeated Minna 5 
hear but the Lady Glowrowrum ; hear but Maddie and 
Clara Groatsettar.” 

If I were to hear Lady Glowrowrum,” said Brenda, 
steadily, “ I should listen to the worst tongue in Zetland ; 
and as for Maddie and Clara Groatsettar, they were both 
blit^ enough to get Mordaunt to sit betwixt them at din- 
ner/Tlie day before yesterday, as you might have observ- 
ed yourself, but that your ear was better engaged.” 

‘‘ Your eyes, at least, have been but indifferently en- 
gaged, Brenda,” retorted the elder sister, “ since the}- 
were fixed on a young man whom all the world but your- 
self believes to have talked of us with the most insolent 
presumption ; and even if he be innocently charged. Lady 
Glowrowrum says it is unmaidenly and bold of you even 
to look in the direction where he sits, knowing it must 
confirm such reports.” 

‘‘ I will look which way I please,” said Brenda, grow- 
ing still warmer ; “ Lady Glowrowrum shall neither rula 
my thoughts, nor my words, nor my eyes. I hold Mor- 
daunt Mertoun to be innocent, — I will look at him as such, 
—I will speak of him as such ; and if I did not speak to 
him also, and behave to him as usual, it is in obedienc»j 
<0 my father, and not for what Lady Glowrowrum, and 


THE PIRATE. 


259 


all her neices, had she twenty instead of two, could think 
wink, nod, or tattle, about the matter that concerns them 
not.” 

Alas ! Brenda,” answered Minna, with calmness, 
“ this vivacity is more than is required for the defence of 
the character of a mere friend ! — Beware — He who ru- 
ined Norna’s peace for ever, was a stranger, admitted to 
her affections against the will of her family.” 

“ He was a stranger,” replied Brenda, with emphasis, 
“ not only in birth, but in manners. She had not been 
bred up with him from her youth, — she had not known 
the gentleness, the frankness of his disposition, by an inti- 
macy of many years. He was indeed a stranger, in char- 
acter temper, birth, manners, and morals, — some wan- 
dering adventurer, perhaps, whom chance or tempest had 
thrown upon the islands, and who knew how to mask a 
false heart with a frank brow. My good sister, take home 
your own warning. There are other strangers at Burgh- 
Westra, besides this poor Mordaunt Mertoun.” 

Minna seemed for a moment overwhelmed with the 
rapidity with which her sister retorted her suspicion and 
her caution. But her natural loftiness of disposition en 
abled her to reply with assumed composure. 

“ Were I to treat you, Brenda, with the want of confi- 
dence you show towards me, I might reply that Cleveland 
is no more to me than Mordaunt was ; or than young 
Swartaster, or Lawrence Ericson, or any other favourite 
guest of my father’s now is. But 1 scorn to deceive you, 
or to disguise my thoughts. — I love Clement Cleveland.” 

“ Do not say so, my dearest sister,” said Brenda, aban- 
doning at once the air of acrimony with which the con- 
versation had been latterly conducted, and throwing her 
arms round her sister’s neck, with looks, and with a tone, 
ol the most earnest affection, — “ do not say so, I implore 
y^ou ! I will renounce Mordaunt Mertoun, — I will sweai 
never to speak to him again ; but do not repeat that you 
lov^ this Cleveland !” 

“ And why should I not repeat,” said Minna, disengag- 
ing herself gently from her sister’s grasp, “ a sentimenl 
12 


260 


THE PIRATE. 


in which I glory ? The boldness, the strength and energy 
of his character, to which command is natural, and fear 
unknown, — these very properties, which alarm you for 
my happiness, are the qualities which insure it. Remem- 
ber, Brenda, that when your foot loved the calm smooth 
sea-beach of the summer sea, mine ever delighted in the 
summit of the precipice, when the waves are in fury.” 

“ And it is even that which I dread,” said Brenda ; “ it 
is even that adventurous disposition which now is urging 
you to the brink of a precipice more dangerous than ever 
was washed by a spring-tide. This man, — do not fj own, 1 
will say no slander of him, — ^but is he not, even in your 
own partial judgment, stern and overbearing ? accustomed, 
as you say, to command ; but for that very reason, com- 
manding where he has no right to do so, and leading 
whom it would most become him to follow ? rushing on 
danger, rather for its own sake, than for any other object ? 
And can you think of being yoked with a spirit so un- 
settled and stormy, whose life has hitherto been led in 
scenes of death and peril, and who, even while sitting by 
your side, cannot disguise his impatience again to engage 
in them ^ A lover, methinks, should love his mistress bet- 
ter than his own life ; but yours, my dear Minna, loves 
her less than the pleasure of inflicting death on others.” 

“ And it is even for that I love him,” said Minna. ‘‘ I 
am a daughter of the old dames of Norway, who could 
send their lovers to battle with a smile, and slay them, 
with their own hands, if they returned with dishonour. 
My lover must scorn the mockeries by which our degrad- 
ed race strive for distinction, or must practise them only 
in sport, and in earnest of nobler dangers. No whale- 
striking, bird-nesting favourite for me ; my lover must be 
a Sea-king, or what else modern times may give that 
draws near to that lofty character.” 

“ Alas, my sister.!” said Brenda, ‘‘ it is now that I must 
in earnest begin to believe the force of spells and of 
charms. You remember the Spanish story which yon 
took from me long since, because I said^in your admira- 
tion of the chivalry of the olden times of Scandinavia 


THE PIRATE. 


5261 


you iiva.led the extravagance of the hero. — ^Ah, ]\1 mna ! 
your colour shows that your conscience checks you, and 
reminds you of the book I mean ; — is it more wise, think 
you, to mistake a wind-mill for a giant, or the commander 
of a paltry corsair for a Kiempe, or a Vi -king ?” 

Minna did indeed colour with anger at this insinuation, 
of which, perhaps, she felt in some degree the truth. 

“ You have a right,’’ she said, “ to insult me, because 
you are possessed of my secret.” 

Brenda’s soft heart could not resist this charge of un- 
kindness ; she adjured her sister to pardon her, and the 
natural gentleness of Minna’s feelings could not resist her 
entreaties. 

We are unhappy,” she said, as she dried her sister’s 
tears, “ that we cannot see with the same eyes — let us 
not make each other more so by mutual insult and un- 
kindness. You have my secret-^it will not, perhaps, long 
be one, for my father shall have the confidence to which 
he is entitled, so soon as certain circumstances will permit 
me to offer it. Meantime, I repeat, you have my secret, 
and I more than suspect that I have yours in exchange, 
though you refuse to own it.” 

How, Minna !” said Brenda ; “ would you have me 
acknowledge for any one such feelings as you allude to, 
ere he has said the least word that could justify such a 
confession ?” 

‘‘ Surely not ; but a hidden fire may be distinguished 
by heat as well as flame.” 

You understand these signs, Minna,” said Brenda, 
hanging down her head, and in vain endeavouring to sup- 
press the temptation to repartee which her sister’s remark 
offered ; “ but I can only say, that, if ever I love at all. 
It shall not be until I have been asked to do so once or 
twice at least, which has not yet chanced to me. But 
do not let us renew our quarrel, and rather let us think 
why Norn a should have told us that horrible tale, and to 
what she expects it should lead.” • 

“ It must have been as a caution,” replied Minna — “ a 
caution which our situation, and, I will not deny it, which 


262 


THE PIRATE. 


mine in particular, might seem to her ic call lor ; — ^but I 
am alike strong in my own innocence, and in the honour 
nf Cleveland.’’ 

Brenda would fain have replied, that she did not con- 
fide so absolutely in the latter security as in the first ; but 
she was prudent, and, forbearing to awaken the former 
painful discussion, only replied, “ It is strange that Norna 
should have said nothing more of her lover. Surely he 
could not desert her in the extremity of misery to which 
he had reduced her ?” 

“ There may be agonies of distress,” said Minna, after 
a pause, “ in which the mind is so much jarred, that it 
ceases to be responsive even to the feelings which have 
most engrossed it ; — her sorrow for her lover may have 
been swallowed up in horror and despair.” 

“ Or he might have fled from the islands, in fear of 
our father’s vengeance,” replied Brenda. 

“ If for fear, or faintness of heart, ” said Minna, look 
ing upwards, “ he was capable of flying from the ruin 
which he had occasioned, I trust he has long ere this sus- 
tained the punishment which Heaven reserves for the most 
base and dastardly of traitors and of cowards. — Come, 
sister, we are ere this expected at the breakfast board.” 

And they went thither, arm in arm, with much more of 
confidence than had lately subsisted between them ; the 
little quarrel which had taken place having served the pur- 
pose of a hourasque, or sudden squall, which dispels mists 
and vapours, and leaves fair weather behind it. 

On their way to the breakfast apartment, they agreed 
that it was unnecessary, and might be imprudent, to com- 
municate to their father the circumstance of the nocturnal 
visit, or to let him observe that they now knew more than 
formerly of the melancholy history of Norna. 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE 


1. Page 16. Patch of ground for vegetables. The liberal custom of the 
country permits any person, who has occasion for such a convenience, to se- 
lect out of the unenclosed moorleind a small patch, which he surrounds w’ith 
a drystone wall, and cultivates as a kail-yard, till he exhausts the soil with 
cropping, and then he deserts it, and encloses another. This liberty is so far 

"from inlerring an invasion of the right of proprietor and tenant, that the last 
degree of contempt is inferred of an avaricious man, when aZetlander says 
he w'ould not hold a plantie cruive of him. 

2. Page 16. A lispund is about thirty pounds English, and the value is 
averaged by Dr. Edmonston at ten shillings sterling. 

3. Page 21. Firmer, small whale. 

4. Page 21. The sagas of the Scalds are full of descriptions of these 
champions, and do not permit us to doubt that the Berserkars, so called from 
fighting without armour, used some physical means of working themselves 
into a Ircnzy, during which they possessed the strength and energy of mad- 

« ness. The Indian warriors are well known to do the same by dint of opium 
and bang. 

5. Page 23. Fatal accidents, however, sometimes occur. When I visit- 
ed the Fair Isle in 1814, a poor lad of fourteen had been killed by a fall from 
the rocks about a fortnight before our arrival. The accident happened almost 
within sight of his mother, who was casting peats at no great distance; The 
body fell into the sea, and was seen no more. But the islanders account thig 
an honorable mode of death j and as the children begin the practice of climb- 
ing very early, fewer accidents occur than might be expected. 

6. Page 24. Near the conclusion of this chapter it is noticed that the old 
Norwegian sagas w’ere preserved and often repeated by the fishermen of 
Orkney and Zetland, while that language was not yet quite forgotten. Mr. 
Baikie of Tankerness, a most respectable inhabitant of Kirkwall, and an 
Orkney proprietor, assured me of the following curious fact. 

A clergyman, who was not long deceased, remembered well when some 
remnants of the Norse were still spoken in the island called North Ronald- 
shaw. When Gray's Ode, entitled the ‘‘ Fatal Sisters,” was first publish- 
ed, or at least first reached that remote island, the reverend gentleman had 
the well-judged curiosity to read it to some of the old persons of the isle, 
as a poem which regarded the history of their own country. They listened 
R’ith great attention to the preliminary stanzas .* — 

Now the storm begins to lour. 

Haste the loom ol hell prepare. 

Iron sleet of arrowy shower 
Hurtles in the darken’d air.” 

But when they had heard a verse or two more, they interrupted the reader; 
Idling hill they kn* -v the song well in the Norse language, and had often 


264 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE. 


sung' it to him ■when he asked them for an old song. They called it the Ma- 
gicians, or the Enchantresses. It would have been singular news to the ele- 
gant translator, w'hen executing his version from the text of Bartholine, to 
have learned that the Norse original was still preserved by tradition in a re- 
mote corner of the British dominions. The circumstances will probably jus- 
II ly what is said in the text concerning the traditions of the inhabitants of 
those remote isles, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. 

Even yet, though the Norse language is entirely disused, except in so far 
as particular words and phrases are still retained, these fishers of the Ultima 
Tliule are a generation much attached to these ancient legends. Of this the 
author learned a singular instance. 

About twenty years ago, a missionary clergyman had taken the resolution 
of traversing those wild islands, where he supposed there might be a lack of 
religious instruction, which he believed himself capable of supplying. After 
being some days at sea in an open boat, he arrived at North Ronaldshaw, 
where his appearance excited great speculation. He was a very little man, 
dark-complexioned, ai'd from the fatigue he had sustained in removing from 
one island to another, appeared before them ill-dressed and unshaved ; so- 
that the inhabitants set him down as one of the Ancient Piets, or, as they 
call them with the usual strong guttural, Peghts. How they miglit have re- 
ceived the poor preacher in this character, was at least dubious ; and the 
schoolmaster of the parish, who had given quarters to the fatigued traveller, 

set off to consult with Mr. S , the able and ingenious engineer of the 

Scottish Light-House Service, wlio chanced to be on the island. As his 
skill and knowledge were in the highest repute, it w'as conceived that Mr. 

S could decide at once w'hether the stranger was a Peght, or ought to 

be treated as such. Mr. S was so good-natured as to attend the sum- 

mons, w'ith the view of rendering the preacher some service. The poor 
missionary, who had watched for three nights, was now fast asleep, little 
dreaming what odious suspicions were current respecting him. The inhabi- 
tants were assembled round the door. Mr. S , understanding the travel- 

ler’s condition, declined disturbing him, upon which the islanders produced a 
pair of very little uncouth-looking boots, with prodigiously thick soles, and 
appealed to him whether it was possible such articles of raiment could belong 

to any one but a Peght. Mr. S , finding the prejudices of the natives so 

strong, was induced to enter the sleeping apartment of the traveller, and was 
surprised to recognise in the supposed Peght a person whom he had knowm 
in his worldly profession of an Edinburgh shopkeeper, before he had assum- 
ed his present vocation. Of course he w'as enabled to refute all suspicions of 
Peghtism. 

7. Page 25. I have said, in the text, that the wondrous tales told by 
Pontoppidan, the Archbishop of Upsal, still find believers in the Northern 
Archipelago. It is in vain they are cancelled even in the later editions of 
Guthrie’s Grammar, of which instructive work they used to form the chapter 
fiir most attractive to juvenile readers. But the same causes which proba- 
bly gave birth to the legends concerning mermaids, sea-snakes, krakens, and 
other marvellous inhabitants of the Northern Ocean, are still afloat in those 
climates where they took their rise. They had their origin probably from 
tlie eagerness of curiosity manifested by our elegant poetess, Mrs. Hemans : 

' What hidest thou in thy treasure-caves and cells, 

Thou ever-sounding and mysterious Sea ?” 

The additional mystic gloom which rests on these nortnern billows for half 
the year, joined to the imperfect glance obtained of occasional objects, en- 
courage the timid or the fanciful to give way to imagination, and frequently 
to shape out a distinct story from some object half seen and imperfectly ex- 
amined. Thus, some 3 'ears since, a large object was observed in the beau 
tiful Bay of Scalloway in Zetland, so much in vulgar opinion resembling the 
kraken, that though it miglrt be distinguished for several days, if tlie ex 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE 


265 


change of darkness to twilight can be termed so, yet the hardy ooatmei. 
shuddered to approach it^ for fear of being drawn down by the suction sup 
posed to attend its sinking. It was probably the hull of some vessel which 
had foundered at sea. 

The belief in mermaids, so fanciful and pleasing in itself, is ever and anon 
refreshed by a strange tale from the remote shores of some solitary islet. 

The author heard a mariner of some reputation in his class vouch for hav- 
ing seen the celebrated sea-serpent. It appeared, so far as could be guess- 
ed, to be about a hundred feet long, with the wild mane and fiery eyes which 
old writers ascribe to the monster ; but it is not unlikely the spectator might, 
in the doubtful light, be deceived by the appearance of a good Norway log 
floating on the waves. I have only to add, that the remains of an animaF 
supposed to belong to this latter species, w'ere driven on shore in the Zet- 
land Isles, within the recollection of man. Part of the bones were sent to 
London, and pronounced by Sir Joseph Banks to be those of a basking 
shark ; yet it would seem that an animal so well known, ought to have been 
immediately distinguished by the northern fishermen. 

8. Page .36. The cormorant j which may be seen frequently dashing hi 
wild flight along tlie roosts and tides of Zetland, and yet c'ore often drawn 
up in rcuiks on some ledge of rock, like a body of the Black Brunswickers in 

1815. 

9. Page 42. i. e. Gossips. 

10. Page 49. This is admitted by the English agriculturist >— 

My music since has been the plough, 

Entangled with some care among j 
The gain not great^ the pain enough. 

Hath made me sing another song.'' 

11. Page 51. Government OF Zetland. — At the period supposed, 
the Earls of Morton held the islands o.* Orkney and Zetland, originally grant- 
ed in 1643, confirmed in 1707, and re.idered absolute in 1742. This gave the 
family much property and influence, which they usually exercised by factors, 
named chamberlains. In 1766 this property w as sold by the then Earl ol 
Morton to Sir Lawrence Dundas, by w hose son. Lord Dundas, it is now' held. 

12. Page 62. A pedlar. 

13. Page 73. The beetle with which tire Scottish housewives used to 
perform the office of the modern mangle, by beating newly-w-ashed linen on 
a smooth stone for the purpose, called the beetling-stone. 

14. Page 79. The chapman's drouth^ that is, the pedlar’s thirst, is pro- 
verbial in Scotland, because these pedestrian traders w’ere in the use of mod- 
estly asking only for a drink of water, when, in fact, they were desirous of food. 

15. Page 80. Test upon it, i. e. leave it in my will ; a mo<le of bestow- 
ing charity, to which many are partial as well as the good dame in the text. 

16. Pao-e 80. Although the Zetlanders were early reconciled to the re- 
formed faith, some ancient practices of Catholic superstition survived long 
amon"' them. In very stormy weather a fisher would vow an oramus to 
Saintlionald, and acciuitted himself of the obligation by throwing a small 
piece of money in at tne window of a ruinous chapel. 

17. Page 89. The King of Sweden, the same Eric quoted by Mordaunt. 
'' wa says Olaus Magnus, in his time held second to none in the magical 

VOL. I 


266 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE 


art ; and he was so familiar with the evil spirits whom he worshipped, that 
what way soever he turned his cap, the wind would presently blow that way. 
For this he was called Windycap/' Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus. 
Ronice, 1555. It is well known that the Laplanders derive a profitable trade 
in selling' winds, but it is perhaps less notorious, that within these few years 
such a commodit}'^ might be purchased on British ground, where it was likely 
to be in great request. At the village of Stromness, on the Orkne 3 ^ main 
island, called Pomona, lived, in 1814, an aged dame, called Bessie Millie, who 
helped out her subsistance by selling favorable winds to mariners. ^ He was 
a venturous master of a vessel who left the roadstead of Stromness without 
paying his offering to propitiate Bessie Millie ; her fee was extremely mod- 
erate, being exactly sixpence, for which, as she explained herself, she boiled 
her kettle and gave the bark advantage of her prayers, for she disclaimed all 
unlawful arts. The wind thus petitioned for was sure, she said, to arrive, 
though occasionally the mariners had to wait some time for it. The woman's 
dwelling and appearance were not unbecoming her pretensions j her house, 
which was on the brow of the steep hill on which Stromness is founded, was 
only accessible by a series of dirty and precipitous lanes, and for exposure 
might have been the abode of Eolus himself, in whose commodities the inhab- 
itant dealt. She herself was, as she told us, nearly one hundred years old, 
withered and dried up like a mummy. A clay-coloured kerchief, folded round 
her head, corresponded in colour to her corpse-like complexion. Two light- 
blue eyes that gleamed with a lustre like that of insanity, an utterance of as- 
tonishmg rapidity, a nose and chin that almost met together, and a ghastly 
expression of cunning, gave her the effect of Hecate. She remembered Gow 
the pirate, who had been a native of these islands, in which he closed his ca- 
reer, as mentioned in the preface. Such was Bessie Millie, to whom the 
mariners paid a sort of tribute, with a feeling betwixt jest and earnest. 

18. Page 96. It is remarkable, that in an archipelago where so many 
persons must be necessarily endangered by the waves, so strange and inhu- 
man a maxim should have ingrafted itself upon the minds of a people other- 
wise kind, moral, and hospitable. But all with whom I have spoken agree, 
that it was almost general in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and 
was with difficulty weeded out by the sedulous instructions of the clergy, and 
the rigorous injunctions of the proprietors. There is little doubt it had been 
originally introduced as an excuse for suffering those who attempted to es- 
cape from the wreck to perish unassisted, so that, there being no survivor, 
she might be considered as lawful plunder. A story was told me, I hope an 
untruegpne, that a vessel having got ashore among the breakers on one of the 
remote Zetland islands, five or six men, the whole or greater part of the un- 
fortunate crew, endeavoured to land by assistance of a hawser, which they 
liad secured to a rock 5 the inhabitants were assembled, and looked on with 
some uncertainty, till an old man said, Sirs, if these men come ashore, the 
additional mouths will eat all the meal we have in store for winter ; and how 
are we to get more 1” A young fellow, moved with this argument, struck 
the rope asunder with his axe, and all the poor wretches were immersed 
among the breakers, and perished. 

19. Page 103. The ancient Zetlander looked upon the sea as the pro- 
vider of his living, not only bj the jilenty produced by the fishings, but by the 
spoil of wrecks. Some particular islands have fallen off very considerably 
in their rent, since the commissioners of the light-houses have ordered lights 
on the Isle of Sanda and the Pentland Skerries. A gentleman, familiar with 
those seas, expressed surprise at seeing the farmer of one of the isles in a boat 
with a very old pair of sails. Had it been His will" — said the man, with 
an affected deference to Providence, very inconsistent with the sentiment of 
nis speech — Had it been His will that light had not been placed yonder, I 
would have had enough of new sails last winter.” 

20 Page 120. If irter. 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE. 


267 


21 Page 143. There is certainly something very extraordinary to a 
stranger in Zetland corn-mills. They are of the smallest possible size ; the 
W'heel which drives them is horizontal, and the cogs are turned diagonally to 
the water. 'J’he beam itself stands upright, and is inserted in a stone quern 
of the old-fashioned construction, which it turns round, and thus performs its 
duty. Had Robinson Crusoe ever been in Zetland, be would have had no 
ciilhculty in contriving a machine for grinding corn in his desert island. 
'J'hese mills are thatched over in a little hovel^ which has much the air of a 
pig-sty. There may be five hundred such mills on one island, not capable 
any one of them of grinding above a sackful of corn at a time. 

22. Page 146. What is eat by way of relish to dry bread is called kitch- 
en in Scotland, as cheese, dried fish, or the like relishing morsels. 

23. Page 173. See Hibbert’s Description of the Zetland Islands, p. 470. 

24. Page 185. See Note 6 of this Volume, p. 263. 

25. Page 189. Montrose, in his last and ill-advised attenmt to invade 
Scotland, augmented his small army of Danes and Scottish Royalists, by 
some bands of raw troops, hastily levied, or rather pressed into his service, 
in the Orkney and Zetland Isles, who, having little heart either to the cause 
or manner of service, behaved but indifiTerently when they came into action. 


26. Page 190. Here, as aflcrw'ards remarked in the text, the Zetlander’s 
memory deceived him grossly. Sir John Urry, a brave soldier of fortune, 
was at that time in Montrose's army, and made prisoner along with him. 
He had changed so often that the mistake is 'pardonable. After the action, 
he was executed by the Covenanters ; and 

** Wind-changing Warwick then could change no more.” 

Strachan commanded the body by which Montrose was routed. 


27. Page 191. The Sword-Dance is celebrated in general terms by 
Olaus Magnus. He seems to have considered it as peculiar to the Norwe- 
gians, from whom it may have passed to the Orkrieymcn and Zetlanders. 
with other northern customs. 

« Of their Dancing in Arms. 


<< Moreover, the northern Goths and Swedes had another sport to exercise 
youth withall, that they will dance and skip amongst naked swords and dan- 
gerous w'eapons : And this they do after the manner of masters of defence, 
as they are taught from their youth by skilful teachers, tliat dance before 
them, and sing to it. And this play is showed especially about Shrovetide, 
called in Italian Maccharamm. For, before carnivals, all the youth dance 
for eight days together, holding their swords up, but within the scabbards, for 
three times turning about ^ and then they do it with their naked swords lifted 
up. After this, turning more moderately, taking the points and puminels one 
of the other, they change ranks, and place themselves in an triagonal h^re, 
and this they call Rosam; and presently tuey dissolve it by dmwiiig back 
their swords and lifting them up, that upon every one's head there may be 
made a square Rosa, and then by a most nimbly whisking their swords about 
collaterally, they quickly leap back, and end the sport, which they guide with 
pipes or songs, or both together 5 first by a more heavy, then by a more ve- 
hement, and lastly, by a most vehement dancing. Put this speculation is 
scarce to be understood but by those who look on, how comely and decent 
it is when at one word, or one commanding, the whole armed multitude is 
directed to fall to fight, and clergymen may exercise tliemsel ves and mingle 
themselves amongst others at this sport, because it is all guided by most wise 

'^rrtCe P/imate’s account of the sword-dance, I am able to add the words 
sung or chanted, on occasion of thV^ dance, as it is still performed in Papa 


268 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE. 


Stour, a remote island of Zetland, where alone the custom keeps its ground. 
It is, it will be observed by antiquaries, a species of play or mystery, in 
which the Seven Champions of Christendom make their appearance, as in 
the mterlude presented in “ All's Well that Ends Well." This dramatic 
curiosity was most kindly procured for my use by Dr. Scott of Hazlar Hos- 
pital, son of my friend Mr. Scott of Mewbie, Zetland. Mr. Hibbert has, in 
Ills Description of the Zetland Islands^ given an account of the sword-dance, 
but somewhat less full than the following i 

‘'Words used as a prelude to the Sword-Darce, a Danish or 
Norwegian Ballet, composed sojie centuries ago, and pre- 
served IN Papa Stour, Zetland. 

Persons Dramatis.* 

(Enter Master, in the character ©/“St. George.) 

Brave gentles all within this boor,t 
If ye delight in any sport, 

Come see me dance upon this floor. 

Which to you all shall yield comfort. 

Then shall I dance in such a sort, 

As possible I may or can j 

You, minstrel man, play me a Porte,t 

That I on this floor may prove a man. 

{He bows, and dances in a line. 

Now have 1 danced with heart and hand, 

Brave gentles all, as you may see. 

For I have been tried in many a land. 

As yet the truth can testify ; 

In England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy and Sp£un, 

Have I been tried with that good sword of steel. 

( Draws, and flourishes.) . 

Yet, I deny that ever a man did make me yield j 
For in my body there is strength. 

As by my manhood may be seen j 
And I, with that good sword of length, 

Have oftentimes in perils been. 

And over champions I weis king. 

And by the strength of this right hand. 

Once on a day I kill'd fifteen. 

And left them dead upon the land. 

Therefore, brave minstrel, do not care. 

But play to me a Porte most light. 

That I no longer do forbear, 

But dance in all these gentles' sight ; 

Although my strength makes you abased. 

Brave gentles all, be not afraid. 

For here are six champions, with me, staid, 

All by my manhood I nave raised. 

( He dances.) 

Since I have danced, I think it best 
To call my brethren in your sight. 


* So placed in the old MS. 

t Boor — so spelt, to accord with the vulgar pronunciation of the word bower. 
X Porte — so spelt in the original. The word is known as indicating a piece 
of music on the bagpipe, to which ancient instrument, which is of Scandina 
vian or gin, the sword-dance may have been originally composed 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE 


JG9 


That I may have a little rest. 

And they may dance with all their might j 
With heart and hand as they are knights, 

And shake their swords of steel so bright, 

And show their main strength on this floor, 

For we shall have another^out 
Jlefore we pass out of this boor. 

Therefore, brave minstrel, do not care 
To play to me a Porte most light. 

That I no longer do forbear. 

But dance in all these gentles' sight. 

( He dances, and then introduces ms Knights, as uwkr.J 
Stout James of Spain, both tried and stour,* 

Thine acts are known full well indeed j 
And champion Dennis, a French knight, 

Who stout and bold is to be seen 3 
And David, a Welshman born. 

Who is come of noble blood 3 
And Patrick also, who blew the horn 
An Irish knight, amongst the wood. 

Of Italy, brave Anthony the good. 

And Andrew of Scotland King 3 
St. George of England, brave mdeed, 

Who to ine Jews wrought muckle tiiite.f 
Away with this !— Let us come to sport, 

Since that ye have a mind to war. 

Since that ye have this bargain sought. 

Come let us fight and do not fear. 

Therefore, brave minstrel, do not care 
To play to me a Porte most light. 

That I no longer do forbear. 

But dance in all these gentles' sight. 

f He dances, and advances to James of Spain.) 
Stout James of Spain, both tried and stour. 

Thine acts are known full well indeed. 

Present thyself within our sight, 

Without either fear or dread. 

Count not for favour or for feid. 

Since of thy acts thou hast been sure 5 
Brave James of Spain, I will thee lead. 

To prove thy manhood on this floor. 

(James danced.) 

Brave champion Dennis, a French knight. 

Who stout and bold is to be seen. 

Present thyself here in our sight. 

Thou brave French knight. 

Who bold hast been 5 

Since thou such valiant acts hast done. 

Come let us see some of them now 
With courtesy, thou brave French knight. 

Draw out thy sword of noble hue. 

(Dennis dances, while the others retire to a side,) 
Brave David a bow must string, and with awe 
Sot up a wand upon a stand. 

And that brave David will cleave in twa,t 


• Stour, great. 

+ Muckle tinte, much loss or harm 3 so in MS. 

X Something is evidently amiss or omitted here. David probably exhibited 
some feat of archery. 


270 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE 


(David dances sohis.) 

Here is, I think, cin Irish knight, 

Who does not fear, or does not fright, 

To prove thyself a valiant man. 

As thou hast done full often bright 5 

Brave Patrick, dance, if that thou can.— ^ He da?tces.J 

Thou stout Italian, come thou here j , 

Thy name is Anthony, most stout 5 

Draw out thy sword that is most clear, 

And do thou fight without any doubt j 
Thy leg thou snake, thy neck thou lout,* 

And show some courtesy on this floor, , 

For we shall have another bout. 

Before we pass out of this boor. 

Thou kindly Scotsman, come thou here ; 

Thy name is Andrew of fair Scotland j 
Draw out thy sword that is most clear. 

Fight for thy king with thy right hand 5 
And aye as long as thou canst stand. 

Fight for thy king with all thy heart ; 

And then, for to confirm his band. 

Make all his enemies for to smart.— Ci/e dances.) 

( Music begins.) 

FlGUIR.f 

‘‘ The six stand in rank with their swords reclining on their shoulders. The 
5 raster (St. George) dances, and then strikes the sword of James of Spain, 
who follows George, then dances, strikes the sword of Dennis, who follows 
behind James. In like manner the rest — the music playing— swords as 
before. After the six are brought out of rank, they and the master form a 
circle, and hold the swords point and hilt. This circle is danced round 
twice. The whole, headed by the master, pass under the swords held in a 
vaulted manner. They jump over the swords. This naturally places the 
swords across, which they disentangle by passing under their right sword. 
They take up the seven swords, and form a circle, in which they dance round. 

‘‘ The master runs under the sword opposite, which he jumps over back- 
wards. The others do the same. He then passes under the right-hand 
sword, which the others follow, in which position they dance, until command- 
ed by the master, when they form into a circle, and dance round as before. 
They then jump over the right-hand sword, by which means their backs are 
to the circle, and their hands across their backs. They dance round in that 
form until the master calls * Loose,' when they pass under the right sword, 
and are in a perfect circle. 

** The master lays down his sword, and lays h Id of the point of James’ 
sword. He then turns himself, James, and tne others, into a clew. When 
so formed, he passes under out of the midst of the circle ; the others follow; 
they vault as before. After several evolutions, they throw themselves into a 
circle, with their arms across the breast. They afterwards form such figures 
as to form a shield of their swords, and the shield is so compact that the mas- 
ter and his knights dance alternately with this shield upon their heads. It is 
then laid down upon the floor. Each knight lays hold of their former points 
and hilts with their hands across, which msentangle by figures directly con 
Irary to those that formed the shield. This finishes the Bmlet. 

Epilogue. 

Mars does rule, he bends his brows. 

He makes us all agast 


* LooU—io bend or bow down, pronounced loot, as doubt is doot in Scotland, 
f Figuir — so spelt in MS. 

J Agosf— so spelt in MS 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE. 


271 


After the few hours that we §tay here, 

Venus will rule at last. 

Farewell, farewell, brave gentles all. 

That herein do remain, 

I wish you health and happiness 
Till we return again. [Exeunt.’’ 

The manuscript from which the above was copied was transcribed from 
a very old one, by Mr. William Henderson, Jun., of Papa Stour, in Zetland. 
Mr. Henderson's copy is not dated, but bears his own signature, and, from 
various circumstances, it is known to have been written about the year 1788. 

28. Page 221. The contest about the whale will remind the poetical 
reader of Waller's Battle of the Summer Islands. 

• 

29. Page 244. This is one of the wonders of the Orkney Islands, though 
it has been rather undervalued by their late historian, Mr. Barry. The is- 
land of Hoy rises abruptly, starting as it were out of the sea, which is con- 
trary to the gentle and flat character of the other Isles of Orkney. It con- 
sists of a mountain, having different eminences or peaks. It is very steep, 
furrowed with ravines, and placed so as to catch the mists of the Western 
Ocean, and has a noble and picturesque effect from all points of view. The 
highest peak is divided from another eminence, called the Wardhill, by along 
swampy valley full of peat-bogs. Upon the slope of this last hill, and just 
where the principal mountain oTHoy opens in a hollow swamp, or corrie, lies 
what is called the Dwarfie Stone. It is a great fragment of sandstone, com- 
posing one solid mass, which has long since been detached from a belt of the 
same materials, cresting the eminence above the spot where it now lies, and 
which has slid down till it reached its present situation. The rock is about 
seven feet high, twenty-two feet long, ana sev^enteen feet broad. The upper 
end of it is hollowed by iron tools, of which the marks are evident, into a sort 
of apartment, containing two beds of stone, with a passage between them. 
The uppermost and largest bed is rive feet eight inches long, by two feet 
broad, which was supposed to be used by the dwarf himself ; the lower couch 
is shorter, and rounded oft', instead of being squared at the corners. There 
is an entrance of about three feet and a half square^ and a stone lies before it 
calculated to fit the opening. A sort of skylight window gives light to the 
apartment. We can only guess at the purpose of this monument, and differ- 
ent ideas have been suggested. Some have supposed it the work of some 
travelling mason j but the cui bono would remain to be accounted for. The 
Rev. Mr. Barry conjectures it to be a hermit’s cell ; but it displays no symbol 
of Christianity, and the door opens to the westward. I'lie Orcadian tradit’ons 
allege the work to be that of a dwarf, to whom they ascribe supernatural 
powers, and a malevolent disposition, the attributes of that race in Norse 
mythology. Whoever inhabited this singular deu certainly enjoyed 

Pillow cold, and sheets not warm." 

I observed, that commencing just opposite to the Dwarfie Stone, and extend- 
in®' in a line to the sea-beach, there are a number of small barrows, or cairns, 
which seem to connect the stone with a very large cairn where we landed 
This curious monument may therefore have been intended as a temple of 
some kind to the Northern Dii Manes, to which the cairns might direct wo^• 
shippers. 

30. Page 251. This cruel^ is practised by some fishers, out of a vindic* 
live hatred to these ravenous fishes. 


END OF VOLUME I. 




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Nothing in him 

But loth suffer a sea-change. 

TcmptM 


/ 

IN TWO VOLUMES. 


II. 


PARKER’S EDITION, 

REVISED AND CORRECTED, WITH A GENERAL PREFACE* Alt 
INTRODUCTION TO EACH NOVEL, AND NOTES 
HISTORICAL AND ILLUSTRATIVE, BY 


THE AUTHOR 




THE PIRATE. 


CHAPTER I, 

But lost to me, forever lost those joys, 

Which reason scatters, and which time destroys 
No more the midnight fairy-train I view. 

All in the merry moonlight tippling dew. 

Even the last lingering fiction of the brain, 

The church-yard ghost, is now at rest again. 

The Library, 

The moral bard, from whom we borrow the motto of 
this chapter, has touched a theme with which most read- 
ers have some feelings that vibrate unconsciously. Su- 
perstition, when not arrayed in her full horrors, but laying 
a gentle hand only on her suppliant's head, had charms 
which we fail not to regret, even in those stages of society 
from which her influence is well nigh banished by the light 
of reason and general education. At least, in more igno- 
rant periods, her system of ideal terrors had something in 
them interesting to minds which had few means of excite- 
ment. This is more especially true of those lighter mod 
ifications of superstitious feelings and practices which 
mingle in the amusements of the ruder ages, and are, 
like the auguries of Hallow-e’en in Scotland, considered 
partly as matter of merriment, partly as sad and prophetic 
earnest. And, with similar feelings, people even of tole- 
rable education have, in our times, sought the cell of a 
fortune-teller upon a frolic, as it is termed, and yet not 
always in a disposition absolutely sceptical towards the 
responses they receive. 


THE PIRATE. 


<t 


When the sisters of Burgh-Westra arrived in the apart 
ment destined for a breakfast, as ample as that which wa 
have described on the preceding morning, and had under- 
gone a jocular rebuke from the Udaller for their late at- 
tendance, they found the company, most of whom had 
already breakfasted, engaged in an ancient Norwegian 
custom, of the character which we have just described. 

It seems to have been borrowed from those poems of 
the Scalds, in which champions and heroines are so often 
represented as seeking to know their destiny from some 
sorceress or prophetess, who, as in the legend called by 
Gray the Descent of Odin, awakens by the force of Runic 
rhyme the unwilling revealer of the doom of fate, and 
compels from her answers, often of dubious import, but 
which were then believed to express some shadow of the 
events of futurity. 

An old sibyl, Euphane Fea, the housekeeper we have 
already mentioned, was installed in the recess of a large 
window, studiously darkened by bear-skins and other mis- 
cellaneous drapery, so as to give it something the appear- 
ance of a Laplander’s hut, and accommodated, like a 
confessional chair, with an aperture, which permitted the 
person within to hear with ease whatever questions should 
be put, though not to see the querist. Here seated, the 
voluspa, or sibyl, was to listen to the rhythmical inquiries 
which should be made to her, and return an extempo- 
raneous answer. The drapery was supposed to prevent 
her from seeing by what individuals she was consulted, 
and the intended or accidental reference which the answer 
given under such circumstances bore to the situation of 
the person by whom the question was asked, often fur- 
nished food for laughter, and sometimes, as it happened, 
for more serious reflection. The sibyl was usually cbosen 
from her possessing the talent of improvisation in the 
Norse poetry ; no unusual accomplishment, where the 
minds of many were stored with old verses, and where 
the rules of metrical composition are uncommonly simple. 
The questions were also put in verse ; but as this power 
of extemporaneous composition, though common, could 


THE PIRATE. 


5 


not be supposed universal, the medium of an interpreter 
might be used by any querist, which interpreter, holding 
the consulter of the oracle by the hand, and standing by 
the place from which the oracles were issued, had the task 
of rendering into verse the subject of inquiry. 

On the present occasion, Claud Halcro was summoned, 
Dy the universal voice, to perform the part of interpreter ; 
and, after shaking his head, and muttering some apology 
for decay of memory and poetical powers, contradicted 
at once by his own conscious smile of confidence and by 
the general shout of the company, the light-hearted old 
man came forward to play his part in the proposed enter- 
tainment. 

But just as it was about to commence, the arrange- 
ment of parts was singularly altered. Norna of the Fit- 
ful-head, whom every one excepting the two sisters be- 
lieved to be at the distance of many miles, suddenly, and 
without greeting, entered the apartment, walked majesti- 
cally up to the bear-skin tabernacle, and signed to the fe- 
male who was there seated to abdicate her sanctuary. 
Thq old woman came forth, shaking her head, and look- 
ing like one overwhelmed with fear ; nor, indeed, were 
there many in the company who saw with absolute compo- 
sure the sudden appearance of a person, so well known 
and so generally dreaded as Norna. 

She paused a moment at the entrance of the tent ; 
and, as she raised the skin which formed the entrance, 
she looked up to the north, as if imploring from that quar- 
ter a strain of inspiration ; then signing to the surprised 
guests that they might approach in succession the shrine 
in which she was about to install herself, she entered the 
tent, and was shrouded from their sight. 

But this was a different sport from what the company 
had meditated, and to most of them seemed to present 
so much more of earnest than of game, that there was no 
alacrity shown to consult the oracle. The character and 
pretensions of Norna seemed, to almost all present, too 
serioas for the part which she had assumed ; the men 

VOL. II. 


6 


THE PIRATE. 


whispered to each other, and the women, according to 
Claud Halcro, realized the description of glorious John 
Dryden, — 

“ With horror shuddering, in a heap they ran.” 

The pause was interrupted by the loud manly voice oi 
the Udaller. “ Why does the game stand still, my mas- 
ters ? Are you afraid because my kinswoman is to play 
our Voluspa ? it is kindly done in her, to do for us what 
none in the isles can do so well ; and we will not balk 
our sport for it, but rather go on the merrier.” 

There was still a pause in the company, and Magnus 
Troil added, “ It shall never be said that my kinswoman 
sat in her bower unhalsed, as if she were some of the old 
mountain-giantesses, and all from faint heart. I will 
speak first myself ; but the rhyme comes worse from my 
tongue than when I was a score of years younger. — 
Claud Halcro, you must stand by me.” 

Hand in hand they approached the shrine of the sup- 
posed sibyl, and after a moment’s consultation together, 
Halcro thus expressed the query of his friend and patron. 
Now, the Udaller, like many persons of consequence in 
Zetland, who, as Sir Robert Sibbald has testified for them, 
had begun thus early to apply both to commerce and nav- 
igation, was concerned to some extent in the whale-fish- 
ery of the season, and the bard had been directed to put 
into his halting verse an inquiry concerning its success 

Claud Halcro. 

" Mother darksome, Mother dread — 

Dweller on the Fitful-head, 

Thou canst see what deeds are done 
Under the never-setting sun. 

Look through sleet, and look through frost, 

Look to Greenland’s caves and coast,— 

By the ice-berg is a sail 
Chasing of the swarthy whale ; 

Mother doubtful. Mother dread, 

Tell us, has the good ship sped I” 


1 

THE PIRATE. 7 


The jest seemed to turn to earnest, as all bending their 
neads around, listened to the voice of Norna, who, with- 
out a moment’s hesitation, answered from the recesses of 
the tent in which she was enclosed : — 

Norna. 

" The thought of the aged is ever on gear, — 

On his fishing, his furrow, his flock, and his steer ; 

But thrive may his fishing, flock, furrow, and herd. 

While the aged for anguish shall tear his grey beard.” 


There was a momentary pause, during which Triptol- 
emus had time to whisper, “ If ten witches and as many 
warlocks were to swear it, I will never believe that a de- 
cent man will either fash his beard or himself about any 
thing, so long as stock and crop goes as it should do.” 

But the voice from within the tent resumed its low 
monotonous tone of recitation, and, interrupting farther 
commentary, proceeded as follows ; — 


Norna. 

" The ship, well-laden as bark need be. 

Lies deep in the furrow of the Iceland sea • — 

The breeze for Zetland blows fair and soft, 

And gaily the garland" is fluttering aloft : 

Seven good fishes have spouted their last, » 

And their jaw-bones are hanging to yard and mast rt 
Two are for Lerwick, and two for Kirkwally — 

And three for Burgh- Westra, the choicest of all.” 


Now the powers above look down and protect us !” 
said Bryce Snailsfoot ; “ for it is mair than woman’s wit 
that has spaed out that ferly. I saw them at North Ron- 
aldshaw, that had seen the good bark, the Olave of Ler- 
wick, that our worthy patron has such a great share in 
that she may be called his own in a manner, and they had 


* The garland is an artificial coronet, composed of ribands by ihise young 
women who take an interest in a whaling vessel or her crew : it is d.v ays dis- 
played from the rigging, and preserved with great care during the voyage. 

t The best oil exudes from the jaw-bones of the whale, 'which, for the jiur 
pose of collecting it, arc suspended to the masts of the vesse' 


8 


THE PIRATE. 


broomed* the ship, and, as sure as there are stars in 
heaven, she answered them for seven fish, exact as Norna 
has tell’d us in her rhyme !” 

“ Umph — seven fish exactly ? and you heard it at 
North Ronaldshaw ?” said Captain Cleveland, “ and I 
suppose told it as a good piece of news when you came 
hither ?” 

“ It never crossed my tongue. Captain,” answered the 
pedlar;, “ I have kend mony chapmen, travelling mer- 
chants, and such like, neglect their goods to carry clashes 
and clavers up and down, from one country-side to anoth- 
er ; but that is no traffic of mine. I dinna believe I have 
mentioned the Olave’s having made up her cargo to three 
folks since I crossed to Dunrossness.” 

“ But if one of those three had spoken the news over 
again, and it is two to one that such a thing happened, 
the old lady prophesies upon velvet.” 

Such was the speech of Cleveland, addressed to Mag- 
nus Troil, and heard without any applause. The Udal- 
ler’s respect for his country extended to its superstitions, 
and so did the interest which he took in his unfortunate 
kinswoman. If he never rendered a precise assent to 
her high supernatural pretensions, he was not at least de- 
sirous of hearing them disputed by others. 

“ Norna,” he said, ‘‘ his cousin, (an emphasis on the 
word,) held no communication with Bryce Snailsfoot, or 
his acquaintances. He did not pretend to explain how 
she came by her information ; but he had always remark- 
ed that Scotsmen, and indeed strangers in general, when 
they came to Zetland, were ready to find reasons for 
things which remained sufficiently obscure to those whose 
ancestors had dwelt there for ages.” 

Captain Cleveland took the hint, and bowed, without 
attempting to defend his own scepticism. 

“ And now forward, my brave hearts,” said the Udal 
ler ; “ and may all have as good tidings as I have ! three 


* There is established among whalers a sort of telegraphic signal, in which 
a certain number of motions, made wilh a broom, express to aay other vessa 
the uunber of fish which they have caught. 


THE PIRATE. 


9 


ivhales cannot but yield — let me think how many Hogs- 
heads ’’ 

There was an obvious reluctance on the part of the 
guests to be the next in consulting the oracle of the tent. 

“ Gude news are welcome to some folks, if they came 
frae the deil himsell,” said Mistress Baby Yellowley, ad 
dressing the Lady Glowrowrum, for a similarity of dispo- 
sition in some respects had made a sort of intimacy be- 
twixt them ; “ but I think, my leddy, that this has ower 
mickle of rank witchcraft in it to have the countenance 
of douce Christian folks like you and me, my leddy.” 

“ There may be something in what you say, my dame,” 
replied the good Lady Glowrowrum ; “ but we Hialt- 
landers are no just like other folks ; and this woman, if 
she be a witch, being the Fowd’s friend and near kins- 
woman, it will be ill ta’en if we haena our fortunes spaed 
like a’ the rest of them ; and sae my nieces may e’en 
step forward in their turn, and nae harm dune. They 
will hae time to repent, ye ken, in the course of nature, 
if there be ony thing wrang in it. Mistress Yellowley.” 

While others remained under similar uncertainty and 
apprehension, Halcro, who saw by the knitting of the 
old Udaller’s brows, and by a certain impatient shuffle of 
his right foot, like the motion of a man who with difficul- 
ty refrains from stamping, that his patience began to wax 
rather thin, gallantly declared, that he himself would, in 
his own person, and not as a procurator for others, put the 
next query to the Pythoness. He paused a minute- 
collected his rhymes, and thus addressed her : — 

Claud Halcro. 

Mother doubtful, Mother dread. 

Dweller of the Fitful-head, 

Thou hast conn'd full many a rhyme, 

That lives upon the surge of time ; 

Tell me, shall my lays be sung, 

Like Hacon’s of the golden tongue. 

Long after Halcro’s dead and gone t 
Or, shall Hialllaud’s minstrel own 
One note to rival glorious John V' 


10 


THE PIRATE. 


The voice of the sibyl immediately replied from her 
sanctuary, 


Norna. 


“ The infant loves the rattle’s noise ; 
Age, double childhood, hath its toys ; 
But different far the descant rings. 

As stiikes a different hand the strings. 
The eagle mounts the polar sky — 

The Imber-goose, unskill’d to fly. 
Must be content to glide along, 

Where seal and sea-dog list his song.” 


Halcro bit his lip, shrugged his shoulders, and then, 
instantly recovering his good -humour, and the ready, 
though slovenly power of extemporaneous composition, 
with which long habit had invested him, he gallantly re 
joined, 

Claud Halcro. 

" Be mine the Imber-goose to play. 

And haunt lone cave and silent bay 
The archer’s aim so shall I shun— 

So shall I ’scape the levell’d gun — 

Content my verse’s tuneless jingle. 

With Thule’s sounding tides to mingle. 

While to the ear of wond’ring wight. 

Upon the distant headland’s height, 

Soften’d by murmur of the sea. 

The rude sounds seem like harmony 1” 


As the little bard stepped back, with an alert gait, sfrid 
satisfied air, general applause followed the spirited manner 
in which he had acquiesced in the doom which levelled 
him with an Imber-goose. But his resigned and coura- 
geous submission did not even yet encourage any other 
person to consult the redoubted Norna. 

The coward fools !” said the Udaller. “ Are you 
too afraid. Captain Cleveland, to speak to an old woman r 
- — Ask her anything— ask her whether the twelve-gun 
sloop at Kirkwall be your consort or no.” 

Cleveland looked at Minna, and probably conceiving 
that she watched with anxiety his answer to her father’s 
question, he collected himself, after a moment’s hesitation 


THE PIRATE. 


li 


“ I never was afraid of man or woman. — Master Hal- 
cro, you have heard the question which our host desires 
me to ask — put it in my name, and in your own way — 1 
pretend to as little skill in poetry as I do in witchcraft.” 

Halcro did not wait to be invited twice, but grasping 
Captain Cleveland’s hand in his, according to the form 
which the game prescribed, he ,put the query which the 
Udaller had dictated to the stranger, in the following 
words : — 

Claud Halcro. 

** Mother doubtful, Mother dread, 

Dweller of the Fitful-head, 

A gallant bark from far abroad, 

, Saint Magnus hath her in his road, 

With guns and firelocks not a few — 

A silken and a scarlet crew. 

Deep stored with precious merchandize, 

Of gold, and goods of rare device — 

What interest hath our comrade bold 
In bark, and ..crew, in goods and gold ? 

There was a pause of unusual duration ere the oracle 
would return any answer ; and when she replied, it was 
in a lower, though an equally decided . tone, with that 
which she had hitherto employed : — 

Norna. 

'' Gold is ruddy, fair and free. 

Blood is crimson, and dark to see ; — 

I look’d out on Saint Magnus Bay, 

And I saw a falcon that struck her prey, — 

A gobbet of flesh in her beak she bore, 

And talons and singles are dripping with gore ; 

Let him that asks after them look on^is hand. 

And if there is blood on’t, he’s one of their band.” 

Cleveland smiled scornfully, and held out his hand,— 

“ Few men have been on the Spanish Main as often as I 
have, without having had to do with the Guarda Costaa 
once and again ; but there never was aught like a stain 
on my hand that a wet towel would not wipe away. ’ 

The Udaller added his voice potential — “ There is 
never peace with Spaniards beyond the Line, — I have 
18 


12 


THE PIRATE. 


heard Captain Tragendeck and honest old Commodoie 
Rummelaer say so an hundred times, and they have both 
been down in the Bay of Honduras, and all thereabouts 
— 1 hate all Spaniards, since they came here and reft the 
Fair Isle men of their vivers in 1558.^ I have heard my 
grandfather speak of it ; and there is an old Dutch history 
somewhere about the house, that shows what work they 
made in the Low Countries long since. There is neithei 
mercy nor faith in them.” 

“ True — true, my old friend,” said Cleveland ; “ they 
are as jealous of their Indian possessions as an old man 
of his young bride ; and if they can catch you at oisad- 
vantage, the mines dor your life is the word, — and so we 
fight them with our colours nailed to the mast.” 

“ That is the way,” shouted the Udaller ; “ the old 
British jack should never down ! When I think of the 
wooden walis, I almost think myself an Englishman, only 
It would be becoming too like my Scottish neighbours ; — 
but come, no offence to any here, gentlemen — all are 
friends, and all are welcome. — Come, Brenda, go on with 
the play — do you speak next, you have Norse rhymes 
enough we all know.” 

“ But none that suit the game we play at, father,” said 
Brenda, drawing back. 

“ Nonsense !” said her father, pushing her onward, 
while Halcro seized on her reluctant hand ; “ never let 
mistimed modesty mar honest mirth — Speak for Brenda, 
Halcro — it is your trade to interpret maidens’ thoughts.” 

The poet bowed to the beautiful young woman, with 
the devotion of a poet and the' gallantry of a traveller, 
?md- having, in a whisper, reminded her that she was in no 
way responsible for the nonsense he was about to speak, 
he paused, looked upward, simpered as if he had caught 
a sudden idea, and at length set off in the following 
verses ; — 

Claud Halcro. 

“ Mother doubtful, Mother dread — 

Dweller of the Fitful-head, 

• Well thou know’st it is thy task 
To tell what beauty will not ask ; 


THE PIRATE. 


13 


Then sleep thy words in wine and milk^ 

And weave a doom of gold and si.k, — 

For we would know, shall Brenda prove 
In love, and happy in her love 1 " 

The prophetess replied almost immediately from be- 
oiiid her curtain : — 


Norna. 

“ Untouch’d by love, the maiden’s breast 
Is like the snow on Rona’s crest, 

High seated in the middle sky, 

In bright and barren purity ; 

But by the sunbeam gently kiss’d, 

Scarce by the gazing eye ’tis miss’d. 

Ere down the lonely valley stealing. 

Fresh grass and growth its course revealing. 

It cheers the flock, revives the flower. 

And decks some happy shepherd’s bower.” 

A comfortable doctrine, and most justly spoken, 
said the Udaller, seizing the blushing Brenda, as she was 
endeavouring to escape — “ never think shame for the 
matter, my girl. To be the mistress of some honest 
man’s house, and the means of maintaining some old 
Norse name, making neighbours happy,, the poor easy, 
and relieving strangers, is the most creditable lot a young 
woman can look to, and I heartily wish it to all here. 
Come, who speaks next? good husbands are going — 
Maddie Groatsettar — my pretty Clara, come and have 
your share.” 

The Lady Glowrowrum shook her head, and “ could 

not,” she said, “ altogether approve” 

“ Enough said — enough said,” replied Magnus ; “ no 
pompulsion ; but the play shall go on till we are tired ol 
it. Here, Minna — I have got you at command. Stand 
forth, my girl — there are plenty of things to be ashamed 
of besides old-fashioned and innocent pleasantry. Come, 
I will speak for you myself — though I am not sure I can 
remember rhyme enough for it.” 

VOL. Ii. * > - 


14 


THE FJRA'IE. 


There was a slight colour wnich passed rapidly c #er 
Minna’s face, but she instantly regained her composure, 
and stood erect by her father, as one superior to any little 
jest to which her situation might give rise. 

Her father, after some rubbing of his brow, and othei 
mechanical efforts to assist his memory, at length recov 
ered verse sufficient to put the following query, thougli ir 
less gallant strains than those of Halcro ; — , 

Magnus Troil. 

Mother, speak, and do not tany, 

Here's a maiden fain would marry. 

Shall she marry, ay or not 7 
If she marry, what's her lot 7” 

A deep sigh was uttered within the tabernacle of the 
soothsayer, as if she compassionated the subject of the 
doom which she was obliged to pronounce. She then 
as usual, returned her response : — 

Norna. 

“ Untouch'd by love, the maiden's breast 
Is like the snow on Rona's crest ; 

So pure, so free from earthly dye. 

It seems, whilst leaning on the sky. 

Part of the heaven to which 'tis nigh ; 

But passion, like the wild March rain. 

May soil the wreath with many a stain. 

We gaze — the lovely vision’s gone — • 

A torrent fills the bed of stone. 

That hurrying to destruction's shock, 

Leaps headlong from the lofty rock.” 

The Udaller heard this reply with high resentment- - 
“ By the bones of the Martyr,” he said, his bold visage 
becoming suddenly ruddy, “ this is an abuse of courtesy ! 
and, were it any but yourself that had classed my daugh- 
ter’s name and the word destruction together, they had 
better have left the word unspoken. But, come forth of 
the tent, thou old galdragon,”^ he added with a smile — 
“ 1 should have known that thou canst not long joy in 
anything that smacks of mirth, God help thee !” His 
summons received no answer ; and after waiting a mo 


THE PIRATE. 


15 


ment, he again addressed her — “ Nay, never be sullen 
with me, kinswoman, though I did speak a hasty word — 
thou knowest I bear malice to no one, least of all to thee 
— so come forth and let us shake hands. — Thou might’st 
have foretold the wreck of my ship and boats, or a bad 
herring-fishery, and I should have said never a word ; but 
Minna or Brenda, you know, are things which touch me 
nearer. But come out, shake hands, and there let there 
be an end on’t.” 

Norna returned no answer whatever to his repeated in- 
vocations, and the company began to look upon each 
other with some surprise, when the Udaller, raising tho 
skin which covered the entrance of the tent, discovered 
that the interior was empty. The wonder was now gen- 
eral, and not unmixed with fear ; for it seemed impossi- 
ble that Norna could have, in any manner, escaped from 
the tabernacle in which she was enclosed without having 
been discovered by the company. Gone, however, she 
was, and the Udaller, after a moment’s consideration, 
dropt the skin-curtain again over the entrance of the tent. 

“ My friends,” he said, with a cheerful countenance, 
‘‘ we have long known my kinswoman, and that her ways 
are not like those of the ordinary folks of this world. 
But she means well by Hialtland, and hath the love of a 
sister for me, and for my house ; and no guest of mine 
needs either to fear evil, or to take offence at her hand. 
I have little doubt she will be with us at dinner-time.” 

“ Now, heaven forbid !” said Mrs. Baby Yellowley — 
‘‘ for, my gude Leddy Glowrowrum, to tell your leddy- 
ship the truth, I likena cummers that can come and gae 
like a glance of the sun, or the whisk of a whirlwind.” 

“ Speak lower, speak lower,” said the Lady Glow- 
rowrum, “ and be thankful that yon carlin hasna ta’en the 
house-side away wi’ J)er. The like of her have played 
warse pranks, and so has she hersell, unless she is the 
sat =^r lied on.” 

Similar murmurs ran through the rest of the company 
until tho Udaller uplifted his stentorian and imperative 
voice to put them to silence, and invited, or rather com 


16 


THE PIRATE. 


manded, the attendance of his guests to behold the boats 
set off for the haaf or deep-sea fishing. 

“The wind has been high since sunrise,” he said, 
“ and had kept the boats in the bay ; but now it was la- 
vourable, and they would sail immediately.” 

This sudden alteration of the weather occasioned sun- 
dry nods and winks amongst the guests, who were not 
indisposed to connect it with Norna’s sudden disappear- 
ance ; but without giving vent to observations which could 
not but be disagreeable to their host, they followed his 
stately step to the shore, as the herd of deer follows the 
leading stag, with all manner of respectful observance ^ 


CHAPTER 11. 

There was a laughing devil in his sneer, 

That raised emotions both of rage and fear ; 

And where his frown of hatred darkly fell, 

Hope withering fled— and Mercy sigh’d farewell. 

The Corsair, Conlo I 

The ling or white fishery is the principal employment 
of the natives of Zetland, and was formerly that upon 
which the gentry chiefly depended for their income, and 
the poor for their subsistence. The fishing season is 
therefore, like the harvest of an agricultural country, the 
busiest and most important, as well as the most animating, 
period of the year. 

The fishermen of each district assemble at particular 
stations, with their boats and crews, and erect upon the 
shore small huts, composed of shingle, and covered with 
turf, for their temporary lodging, and skeos, or drying- 
iiouses, for the fish ; so that the lonely beach at once 
assumes the appearance of an Indian town. The bank& 
to whxh they repair for the haaf fishing, are often many 
tniles distant from the station where the fish is dried ; so 
that they are always twenty or thirty hours absent, fre 
ijuently longer ; and under unfavourable circumstances of 


THE PIRATE. 


17 


wind and tide, they remain at sea, with a very small stock 
of provisions, and in a boat of a construction which seems 
extremely slender, for two or three days, and are some- 
times heard of no more. The departure of the fishers, 
therefore, on this occupation, has in it a character of 
danger and of suffering, which renders it dignified, and 
the anxiety of the females who remain on the beach, 
watching the departure of the lessening boat, or anxious- 
ly looking out for its return, gives pathos to the scene.* 
The scene, therefore, was in busy and anxious anima 
ton, when the Udaller and his friends appeared on the 
t each. The various crews of about thirty boats, amount- 
ing each to from three to five or six men, were taking 
leave of their wives and female relatives, and jumping on 
board their long Norway skiffs, where their lines an(‘ 
tackle lay ready stowed. Magnus was not an idle spec- 
tator of the scene ; he went from one place to another 
inquiring into the state of their provisions for the voyage, 
and their preparations for the fishing — now and then, 
with a rough Dutch or Norse oath, abusing them for 
blockheads, for going to sea with their boats indifferently 
found, but always ending by ordering from his own stores 
a gallon of gin, a lispund of meal, or some similar essential 
addition to their sea-stores. The hardy sailors, on re- 
ceiving such favours, expressed their thanks in the brief 
gruff manner which ‘their landlord best approved ; but 
the women were more clamorous in their gratitude, which 


* Dr. Edmondston, the iiieenious author of a View of the Ancient and 
Present State of the Zetland Islands, has placed this part of the subject in an 
interestiiifj lig-ht. “ It is truly paiuful to witness the anxiety and distress which 
the wives of these poor men suffer on the approacli of a storm. Regardless of 
fatigue, the}' leave their homes, and fly to the spot where they expect their hus- 
bands to land, or ascend the summit of a rock, to look out for them on the bosom 
f>f the deep. Should they get the glimpse of a sail, they watch, with trembling 
solicitude, its alternate rise and disappearance on the waves ; and though often 
tranquillized by the safe arrival of the objects of their search, yet it sometimes 
IS their lot ‘ to hail the bark that never can return.' Subject to the influence of 
a variable climate, and engaged on a sea naturally tempestuous, with rapid 
currents, scarcely a season passes over w'ithout the occurrence of some fatal ac- 
cident or hairbreadth escape.” — View, Sfc. of the Zetland Islands, vol. I. p. 
2.‘lo. Many interesting particulars respecting the fisheries and agriculture of 
Zetland, as well as its antiq-'des, may be found in the work we have quoted 

VOL. II. 


18 


THE. PIRATE. 


Magnus was often obliged to silence by cursing all female 
tongues from Eve’s downwards. 

At length all were on board and ready, the sails were 
hoisted, the signal for departure given, the rowers began 
to pull, and all started from the shore, in strong emula- 
tion to get first to the fishing ground, and to have their 
lines set before the rest ; an exploit to which no little 
consequence was attached by the boat’s crew who should 
be happy enough to perform it. 

While they were yet within hearing of the shore, they 
chanted an ancient Norse ditty, appropriate to the occa- 
sion, of which Claud Halcro had executed the following 
literal translation : — 

Farewell, merry maidens, to song, and to laugh, 

For the brave lads of Westra are bound to the haaf ; 

And we must have labour, and hunger, and pain. 

Ere we dance with the maids of Dunrossness again 

For now, in our trim boats of Noroway deal. 

We must dance on the waves, with the porpoise and seal ; 

The breeze it shall pipe, so it pipe not too high, 

And the gull be our songstress whene’er she flits by. 

Sing on, my brave bird, while we follow, like thee. 

By bank, shoal, and quicksand, the swarms of the sea ; 

And when twenty-score fishes are straining our line. 

Sing .ouder, brave bird, for their spoils Shall be thine. 

We’ll sing while we bait, and we’ll sing when we haul. 

For the deeps of the haaf have enough for us all : 

There is torsk for the gentle, and skate for the carle. 

And there’s wealth for bold Mignus, the son of the earl. 

‘‘ Huzza ! my brave comrades, give way for the haaf. 

We shall sooner come back to the dance and the laugh ; 

For life without mirth is a lamp without oil ; 

Then mirth and long life to the bold Magnus Troil !” 


The rude words of the song were soon drowned in 
me ripple of the waves, but the tune continued long to 
mingle with the sound of wind and sea, and the boats 
were like so many black specks on the surface of the 


THE PIRATE. 


19 


ocean, diminishing by degrees as they bore far and far- 
ther seaward ; while the ear could distinguish touches of 
the human voice, almost drowned amid that of the ele- 
ments. 

The fishermen’s wives looked their last after the part- 
ing sails, and were now departing slowly, with downcast 
and anxious looks, towards the huts in which they were 
to make arrangements for preparing and drying the fish, 
with which they hoped to see their husbands and friends 
return deeply laden. Here and there an old sibyl dis- 
played the superior importance of her experience, by 
predicting^ from the appearance of the atmosphere, that 
the wind would be fair or foul, while others recommend- 
ed a vow to the Kirk of Saint Ninian’s, for the safety of 
their men and boats, (an ancient Catholic superstition, 
not yet wholly abolished ;) and others, but in a low and 
timorous tone, regretted to their companions, that Norna 
of Fitful-head had been suffered to depart in discontent 
that morning from Burgh-Westra, “ and, of all days 
in the year, that they suid have contrived to give her 
displeasure on the first day of the white fishing !” 

The gentry, guests of Magnus Troil, having whiled 
away as much time as could be so disposed of, in viewing 
the little armament set sail, and in conversing with the 
poor women who had seen their friends embark in it, 
began now to separate into various groups and parties, 
which strolled in different directions, as fancy led them, 
to enjoy what may be called the clare-obscure of a Zet- 
land summer day, which, though without the biillianl 
sunshine that cheers other countries during the fine sea- 
son, has a mild and pleasing character of its own, which 
softens while it saddens landscapes, which, in their own 
lonely, bare, and monotonous tone, have something in 
lliem stern as well as barren. 

In one of the loneliest recesses of the coast, where a 
deep indenture of the rocks gave the tide access to the 
cavern, or, as it is called, the Helyer of Swartaster, Minna 
Troil was walking with Captain Cleveland. They had 
probably ohosen that walk, as being little liable to in- 


20 


THE PIRATE. 


terruption from others ; for, as the force of the tide rtn 
derea the place unfit either for fishing or sailing, so il was 
not the ordinary resort of walkers, on account of its being 
the supposed habitation of a Mermaid, a race which Nor- 
wegian superstition invests with magical, as well as mis- 
chievous qualities. Here, therefore, Minna wandered 
with her lover. 

A small spot of milk-white sand, that stretched be- 
neath one of the precipices which walled in the creek on 
either side, afforded them space for a dry, firm, and pleas- 
ant walk of about an hundred yards, terminated at one ex- 
tremity by a dark stretch of the bay, which, scarce touched 
by the wind, seemed almost as smooth as glass, and which 
was seen from between two lofty rocks, the jaws of the 
creek, or indenture, that approached each other above, 
as if they wished to meet over the dark tide that separated 
them. The other end of their promenade was closed by 
a lofty and almost unscaleable precipice, the abode of 
hundreds of sea-fowl, of different kinds, in the bottom of 
which the huge helyer, or sea-cave, itself yawned, as if 
for the purpose of swallowing up the advancing tide, which 
it seemed to receive into an abyss of immeasurable depth 
and extent. The entrance to this dismal cavern consist- 
ed not in a single arch, as usual, but was divided into two, 
by a huge pillar of natural rock, which, rising out of the 
sea, and extending to the top of the cavern, seemed to 
lend its support to the roof, and thus formed a double 
portal to the helyer, on which the fishermen and peasants 
had bestowed the rude name of the Devil’s Nostrils. In 
this wild scene, lonely and undisturbed but by the clang 
of the sea-fowl, Cleveland had already met with Minna 
Troil more than once ; for with her it was a favourite 
walk, as the objects which it presented agreed peculiarly 
with her love of the wild, the melancholy, and the won- 
derful. But now the conversation in which she was 
earnestly engaged, was such as entirely to withdraw her 
attention, as well as that of her cor- ■'anion, from the 
scenery around them. 


THE PIRATE. 


21 


“ You cannot deny it,” she said ; ‘‘ you have given 
way to feelings, respecting this young man, which indicate 
prejudice and violence, — the prejudice unmerited, as fai 
as you are concerned at least, and the violence equally 
imprudent and unjustifiahle.” 

“ I should have thought,” replied Cleveland, “ that 
the service I rendered him yesterday might have freed 
me from such a charge. I do not talk of my own risk, 
for I have lived in danger, and love it ; it is not every one, 
however, would have ventured so near the furious animal 
to save one with whom they had no connection.” 

“ It is not every one, indeed, who could have saved 
him,” answered Minna, gravely ; but every one who 
has courage and generosity would have attempted it. 
The giddy-brained Claud Halcro would have done as 
much as you, had his strength been equal to his courage, — 
my father would have done as much, though having such 
just cause of resentment against the young man, for his 
vain and braggart abuse of our hospitality. Do not, 
therefore, boast of your exploit too much, my good 
friend, lest you should make me think that it required 
too great an effort. I know you love not Mordaunt Mer- 
toun, though you exposed your own life to save his.” 

“Will you allow nothing then,” said Cleveland, “for the 
long misery I was made to endure from the common and 
prevailing report, that this beardless bird-hunter stood 
betwixt me and what I on earth coveted most — the af- 
fections of Minna Trod ?” 

He spoke in a tone at once impassioned and insinuating, 
and his whole language and manner seemed to express 
a grace and elegance, which formed the most striking con- 
trast with the speech and gesture of the unpolished sea- 
man, which he usually affected or exhibited. But his 
apology was unsatisfactory to Minna. 

“ You have known,” she said, “ perhaps too soon, and 
too well, how little you had to fear, — if you indeed fear- 
ed, — that Mertoun, or any other, had interest with Minna 
Troil. — Nay, truce to thanks and protestations ; I woiud 
accept it as the best proof o gratitude, that you wouid. 


22 


THE PIRATE. 


be reconciled with this youth, or at least avoid ever) 
quarrel with him.” 

“ That we should be friends, Minna, is impossible,” 
replied Cleveland ; “ even the love I bear you, the most 
powerful emotion that my heart ever knew, cannot work 
that miracle.” 

“ And why, I pray you ?” said Minna 5 ‘‘ there have 
been no evil offences between you, but rather an ex- 
change of mutual services ; why can you not be friends ? 
— I have many reasons to wish it.” 

“ And can you then forget the slights which he has ’ 
cast upon Brenda, and on yourself, and on your father’s 
house?” 

“ I can forgive them all,” said Minna ; — “ can you not 
say so much, who have in truth received no offence ?” 

Cleveland looked down, and paused for an instant, 
then raised his head and replied, “ I might easily de- 
ceive you, Minna, and promise you what my soul tells 
me is an impossibility ; but I am forced to use too much 
deceit with others, and with you I will use none. 1 can- 
not be friend to this young man ; — there is a natural 
dislike — an instinctive aversion — something like a prin- 
ciple of repulsion in our mutual nature, which makes us 
odious to each other. Ask himself — he will tell you 
he has the same antipathy against me. The obligation 
he conferred on me was a bridle to my resentment ; but 
[ was so galled by the restraint, that I could have gnaw- 
ed the curb till my lips were bloody.” 

‘‘ You have worn what you are wont to call your iron 
mask so long, that your features,” replied Minna, “ re- 
tain the impression of its rigidity, even when it is re- 
moved.” 

“ You do me injustice, Minna,” replied her lover, 
“ and you are angry with me because 1 deal with you 
plainly and honestly. Plainly and honestly, however, will 
I say, that I cannot be Mertoun’s friend, but it shall be 
nis own fault, not mine, if I am ever his enemy. I seek 
not to injure him ; but do not ask me to love him. And 
of this remain satisfied, that it would be vain even if J 


THE PIRATE. 


23 


could do so ; for as sure as I attempted any advances to- 
wards his confidence, so sure would I be to awaken his 
disgust and suspicion. Leave us to the exercise of our 
natural feelings, which, as they will unquestionably keep 
us as far separate as possible, are most likely to prevent 
any possible interference with each other. — Does this sat- 
isfy you ?” 

“ It must,” said Minna, “ since you tell me there is no 
remedy. — And now tell me why you looked so grave 
when you heard of your consort’s arrival,— for that it is her 
1 have no doubt, — in the port of Kirkwall ?” 

“ I fear,” replied Cleveland, “ the consequences of 
that vessel’s arrival with her crew, as comprehending the 
ruin of my fondest hopes. I had made' some progress in 
your father’s favour, and, with time, might have made 
more, when hither come Hawkins and the rest to blight 
my prospects for ever. 1 told you on what terms we 
parted. I then commanded a vessel braver and better 
found than their own, with a crew who, at my slightest 
nod, would have faced fiends armed with their own fiery 
element ; but I now stand alone, a single man, destitute 
of all means to overawe or to restrain them ; and they 
will soon show so plainly the ungovernable license of their 
habits and dispositions, that ruin to themselves and to me 
will in all probability be the consequence.” 

Do not fear it,” said Minna ; “ my fathei can never 
be so unjust as to hold you liable for the offences ol 
others.” 

“ But what will Magnus Troil say to my own demer- 
its, fair Minna ?” said Cleveland, smiling. 

My father is a Zetlander, or rather a Norwegian,” 
said Minna, “one of an oppressed race, who will not 
care whether you fought against the Spaniards, who are 
the tyrants of the New World, or against the Dutch and 
English, who have succeeded to their usurped dominions. 
His own ancestors supported and exercised the freedom 
of the seas in those gallant barks, whose pennons were 
the dread of all Europe.” 


24 


THE PIRATE. 


“ 1 fear, nevertheless,” said Cleaveland, “ that the 
descendant of an ancient Sea-King will scarce acknowl- 
edge a fitting acquaintance in a modern rover. I have not 
disguised from you that I have reason to dread the Eng- 
lish laws ; and Magnus, though a great enemy to taxes, 
imposts, scatt, wattle, and so forth, has no idea of latitude 
upon points of a more general character ; — he would 
willingly reeve a rope to the yard-arm for the benefit of 
an unfortunate bucanier.” 

“ Do not suppose so,” said Minna ; ‘‘ he himself suf- 
fers too much oppression from the tyrannical laws of our 
proud neighbours of Scotland. 1 trust he will soon be 
able to rise in resistance against them. The enemy — such 
I will call them — are now divided amongst themselves, 
and every vessel from their coast brings intelligence of 
fresh commotions — the Highlands against the Lowlands — 
the Williamites against the Jacobites — the Whigs against 
the Tories, and, to sum the whole, the kingdom of Eng- 
land against that of Scotland. What is there, as Claud 
Halcro well hinted, to prevent our availing ourselves of 
the quarrels of these robbers, to assert the independence 
of which we are deprived ?” 

“ To hoist the raven standard on the Castle of Scallo 
way,” said Cleveland, in imitation of her tone ^nd man- 
ner, “ and proclaim your father Earl Magnus the ^irst !” 

“ Earl Magnus the Seventh, if it please you,” answer- 
ed Minna ; “ for six of his ancestors have worn, or were 
entitled to wear, the coronet before him. — You laugh at 
my ardour, — ^but what is there to prevent all this ?” 

“ Nothing will prevent it,” replied Cleveland, “ be- 
cause it will never be attempted — Anything might prevent 
it, that is equal in strength to tlie long-boat of a British 
man-of-war.” 

“ You treat us with scorn, sir,” said Minna ; “ yet 
yourself should know waat a few resolved men may per- 
form.” 

“ But they must be armed, Minna,” replied Cleve- 
land, “ and willing to place their lives upon each desper- 
ate adventure. — Think not of sucli visions. Denmark 


THE PIRATE. 


25 


has been cut down into a second-rate kingdom, in 
capable of exchanging a single broadside with Eng 
land ; Norway is a starving wilderness ; and, in these 
islands, the love of independence has been suppress- 
ed by a long term of subjection, or shows itself but 
in a few muttered growls over the bowl and bottle. And, 
were your men as willing warriors as their ancestors, what 
could the unarmed crews of a few fishing-boats do against 
the British navy ? — Think no more of it, sweet Minna — 
it is a dream, and I must term it so, though it makes your 
eye so bright, and your step so noble.” 

“ It is indeed a dream !” said Minna, looking down, 
“ and it ill becomes a daughter of Hialtland to look or 
to move like a free woman — Our eye should be on the 
ground, and our step slow and reluctant, as that of one 
who obeys a task-master.” 

“ There are lands,” said Cleveland, “ in which the eye 
may look bright upon groves of the palm and the cocoa, 
and where the foot may move light as a galley under sail, 
over fields carpetted with flowers, anB savannahs surround- 
ed by aromatic thickets, and where subjection is unknown, 
except that of the brave to the bravest, and of all to the 
most beautiful.” 

Minna paused a moment ere she spoke, and then an- 
swered, “ No, Cleveland. My own rude country has 
charnfs for me, even desolate as you think it, and depress- 
ed as it surely is, which no other land on earth can of- 
fer to me. I endeavour in vain to represent to mysell 
those visions of trees, and of groves, which my eye nevi^r 
saw ; but my imagination can conceive no sight in nature 
more sublime than these waves, when agitated by a storm, 
or more beautiful than when they come, as they now do, 
rolling in calm tranquillity to the shore. Not the fairest 
scene in a foreign land, — not the brightest sunbeam that 
ever shone upon the richest landscape, would win my 
thoughts for a moment from that lofty rock, misty hill, and 
wide-rolling ocean. Hialtland is the land of my deceasea 
ancestors, and of my living father ; and in Hialtland will 
I live ajid die.” 


VOL. II. 


26 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Then in Hialtland,” answered Cleveland, v/illltoo 
live and die. I will not go to Kirkwall, — I will not make 
my existence Known to my comrades, from whom it were 
else hard for me to escape. Your father loves me, Min- 
na ; who knows whether long attention, anxious care, 
might not bring him to receive me into his family ? Who 
would regard the length of a voyage that was certain to 
terminate in happiness ?” 

“ Dream not of such an issue,” said Minna ; “ it is 
impossible. While you live in my father’s house, — while 
you receive his assistance, and share his table, you will 
find him the generous friend, and the hearty host ; but 
touch him on what concerns his name and family, and the 
frank-hearted Udaller will start up before you the haughty 
and proud descendant of a Norwegian Jarl. See you, a 
moment’s suspicion has fallen on Mordaunt Mertoun, and 
ne has banished from his favour the youth whom he so 
lately loved as a son. No one must ally with his house 
that is not of untainted northern descent.” 

“ And mine may be so, for aught that is known to me 
upon the subject,” said Cleveland. 

“ How !” said Minna ; “ have you any reason to be- 
lieve yourself of Norse descent ?” 

“ 1 have told you before,” replied Cleveland, ‘‘ that 
my family is totally unknown to me. I spent my earliest 
days upon a solitary plantation in the little island of Tor- 
tuga, under the charge of my father, then a different per- 
son from what he afterwards became. We were plunder- 
ed by the Spaniards, and reduced to such extremity of 
poverty, that my father, in desperation, and in thirst ol 
revenge, took up arms, and having become chief of a little 
band, who were in the same circumstances, became a 
bucanier, as it is called, and cruized against Spain, with 
various vicissitudes of good and bad fortune, until, while 
be interfered to check some violence of his companions 
he fell by their hands — no-jncommon fate among the cap- 
tains of these rovers. But whence my father came, or 
what was the place of his birth, I know not, fair IVlinna, 
nor have I ever had a curious thought on the subject ” 


THE PIRATE. 


21 


“ He v;as a Briton, at least, your unfortuixate father ?” 
said Minna. 

“ I have no doubt of it,” said Cleveland ; “ his name, 
which I have rendered too formidable to be openly spoken, 
is an English one ; and his acquaintance with the English 
language, and even with English literature, together with 
the pains which he took, in better days, to teach me both, 
plainly spoke him to be an Englishman. If the rude 
bearing which I display towards others is not the genuine 
character of my mind and manners, it is to my father, 
Minna, that I owe any share of better thoughts and prin- 
ciples, which may render me worthy, in some small de- 
gree, of your notice and approbation. And yet it some- 
times seems to me, that I have two different characters ; 
for I cannot bring myself to believe, that I, who now 
walk this lone beach with the lovely Minna Troil, and 
am permitted to speak to her of the passion which I have 
cherished, have ever been the daring leader of the bold 
band whose name was as terrible as a tornado.” 

“ You had not been permitted,” said Minna, “ to use 
that bold language towards the daughter of Magnus Troil, 
had you not been the brave and undaunted leader, who, 
with so small means, has made his name so formidable. 
My heart is like that of a maiden of the ancient days, and 
is to be won, not by fair words, but by gallant deeds.” 

“ Alas ! that heart,” said Cleveland ; “ and what is it 
that I may do — what is it that man can do, to win in it 
the interest which I desire ?’• 

“ Rejoin your friends — pursue your fortunes — leave 
the rest to destiny,” said Minna. ‘‘ Should you return the 
leader of a gallant fleet, who can tell what may befall ?” 

“ And what shall assure me, that, when I return — if 
return I ever shall — I may not find Minna Troil a bride or 
a spouse ? — No, Minna, I will not trust to destiny the only 
object worth attaining, which my stormy voyage in life 
has yet offered me.” 

“ Hear me,” said Minna. I will bind myself to you, 
if you dare accept such an engagement, by the promise 
of OdinJ^ the most sacred of our northern rites which are 


28 


THE PIRATE. 


yet practised among us, that I will never favour another 
until you resign the pretensions which I have given to you. 
— Will that satisfy you ?— for more I cannot — more 1 
will HOt give.” 

“ Then with that,” said Cleveland, after a 'moment’s 
pause, I must perforce be satisfied ; but remember, it 
is yourself that throw me back upon a mode of life which 
the laws of Britain denounce as criminal, and which the 
violent passions of the daring men by whom it is pursued, 
have rendered infamous.” 

“ But I,” said Minna, ‘‘ am superior to such prejudices. 
In warring with England, I see their laws in no other light 
than as if you were engaged with an enemy, who, in ful- 
ness of pride and power, has declared he will give his 
antagonist no quarter. A brave man will not fight the 
worse for this ; — and, for the manners of your comrades, 
so that they do not infect your own, why should their evil 
report attach to you ?” 

Cleveland gazed at her as she spoke, with a degree of 
wondering admiration, in which, at the same time, there 
lurked a smile at her simplicity. 

“ I could not,” he said, “ have believed, that such 
high courage could have been found united with such ig- 
norance of the world, as the world is now wielded. For 
iiy manners, they who best know me will readily allow, 
that I have done my best, at the risk of my popularity, 
and of my life itself, to mitigate the ferocity of my mates ; 
but how can you teach humanity to men burning with 
vengeance against the world, by whom they are proscrib- 
ed, or teach them temperance and moderation in enjoying 
the pleasures which chance throws in their way, to vary 
a life which would be otherwise one constant scene of 
peril and hardship ? But this promise, Minna — this 
promise, which is all I am to receive in guerdon for my 
faithful attachment — let me at least lose no time in claim- 
ing that.” 

“ It must not be rendered here, but in Kirkwall. — ^We 
must invoke, to witness the engagement, the Spirit which 
presides ove"* tiie ancient circle of Stennis. But perhaps 


THE PIRATE. 


29 


you fear to name ihe ancient F ather of the Slain too, the 
Severe, the Terrille ?” 

Cleveland smiled. 

“ Do me the justice to think, lovely Minna, that I am 
ittle subject to fear real causes of terror ; and for those 
which are visionary, I have no sympathy whatever.” 

‘‘ You believe not in them, then?” said Minna, “ and 
are so far better suited to be Brenda’s lover than mine.” 

“ I will believe,” replied Cleveland, in whatever you 
believe. The whole inhabitants of that Valhalla, about 
which you converse so much with that fiddling, rhyming 
fool, Claud Halcro — all these shall become living and ex- 
isting things to my credulity. But, Minna, do not ask me 
to fear any of them.” 

“ Fear ! no — not to fear them, surely,” replied the 
maiden ; “ for, not before Thor or Odin, when they ap- 
proached in the fulness of their terrors, did the heroes of 
my dauntless race yield one foot in retreat. Nor do I 
own thf'.m as Deities — a better faith prevents so foul an 
error. But, in our own . conception, they are powerful 
spirits for good or evil. And when you boast not to fear 
them, bethink you that you defy an enemy of a kind you 
have never yet encountered.” 

“ Not in these northern latitudes,” said the lover, with 
a smile, “ where hitherto I have seen but angels ; but 1 
have faced, in my time, the demons of the Equinoctial 
Line, which we rovers suppose to be as powerful, and as 
malignant, as those of the North.” 

“ Have you then witnessed those wonders that are be- 
yond the visible w^orld ?” said Minna, with some degree 
of awe. 

Cleveland composed his countenance, and replied, — 
“ A short while before my father’s death, I came, though 
then very young, into the command of a sloop, manned 
with thirty as desperate fellows as ever handled a musket 
We cruized for a long' while with bad success, taking no- 
thing but wretched small-craft, which were destined to 
catch turtle, or otherwise loaded with coarse and worth- 
less trumpery. I had much ado to prevent my comrades 

VOL. II. 


so 


THE PIRATE. 


from avenging upon the crews of those baubling shallops 
the disappointment which they had occasioned to us. At 
length, we grew desperate, and made a descent on a vil- 
lage, where we were told we should intercept the mules of 
a certain Spanish governor, laden with treasure. We 
succeeded in carrying the place ; but while I endeavour- 
ed to save the inhabitants from the fury of my follow’ers, 
the muleteers, with their precious cargo, escaped into the 
neighbouring w-oods. This filled up the measure of my 
unpopularity. My people, who had been long discontent- 
ed, became openly mutinous. I was deposed from my 
command, in solemn council, and condemned, as having 
too little luck and too much humanity for the profession I 
had undertaken, to be marooned,* as the phrase goes, on 
one of those little sandy, bushy islets, which are called, 
in the West Indies, keys, and which are frequented only 
by turtle and by sea-fowl. Many of them are supposed 
to be haunted — some by the demons worshipped by the 
old inhabitants — some by Caciques and others, whom the 
Spaniards had put to death by torture, to compel them to 
discover their hidden treasures, and others by the various 
spectres in which sailors of all nations have implicit faith? 
My place of banishment, called Coffin-key, about two 
leagues and a half to the south-east of Bermudas, was so 
infamous as the resort of these supernatural inhabitants, 
that I believe the wealth of Mexico would not have per- 
suaded the bravest of the scoundrels who put me ashore 
there, to have spent an hour on the islet alone, even in 
broad day-light ; and when they rowed off, they pulled 
for the sloop like men that dared not cast their eyes be- 
hind them. And there they left me, to subsist as I 
might, on a speck of unproductive sand, surrounded by 
the boundless Atlantic, and haunted, as they supposed 
by malignant demons.” 

“ And what was the consequence ?” said Minna, ea« 
gerly. 

I supported life,” said the adventurer, “ at the ex- 
pense of such sea-fowl, aptly called boobies, as were silly 

* To maroon a seaman, sig’nified to abandon him o)i a desolate coast or 
'slajid- a piece of cr uelty often practised by Pirates and Bucaifu rs. 


THE PIRATE. 


31 


enough to let me approach so near as to knock ;nera 
down with a stick ; and by means of turtle-eggs, when 
these complaisant birds became better acquainted with 
the mischievous disposition of the human species, and 
more shy of course of my advances.” 

“ And the demons of whom you spoke ?” — continued 
Minna. 

I had my secret apprehensions upon their account,” 
said Cleveland : In open daylight, or in absolute dark- 
ness, I did not greatly apprehend their approach ; but in 
the misty dawn of the morning, or when evening was 
about to fall, I saw, for the first week of my abode on the 
key, many a dim and undefined spectre, now resembling a 
Spaniard, with his capa wrapped around him, and his huge 
sombrero, as large as an umbrella, upon his head, — now 
a Dutch sailor, with his rough cap and trunk-hose, — and 
now an Indian Cacique, with his feathery crown and long 
lance of cane.” 

“ Did you not approach and address them ?” said 
Minna. 

“ I always approached them,” replied the seaman 5 
“ but, — 1 grieve to disappoint your expectations, my fair 
friend, — whenever I drew near them the phantom chang- 
ed into a bush, or a piece of drift-wood, or a wreath of 
mist, or some such cause of deception, until at last I was 
taught by experience to cheat myself no longer with such 
visions, and continued a solitary inhabitant of Coffin-key, 
as little alarmed by visionary terrors,, as I ever was in the 
great cabin of a stout vessel, with a score of compan bns 
around me.” 

“ You have cheated me into listening to a tale of noth- 
ing,” said Minna ; “ but how long did you continue on 
the island ?” 

“ Four weeks of wretched existence,” said Cleve- 
land, “ when I was relieved by the crew of a ves- 
sel which came thither a-turtling. Yet my miser- 
able seclusion was not entirely useless to me; for 
on that spot of barren sand I found, or rather forged 
the iron mask, which has since been my chief securi- 
fy against treason, or mutiny of rnv followers. li 


32 


THE PIRATE. 


was there I formed the resolution to seem no softer heart- 
ed, nor better instructed — no more humane, and no more 
scrupulous, than those with whom fortune had leagued 
me. I thought over my former story, and saw that seem- 
ing more brave, skilful, and enterprizing than others, had 
gained me command and respect, and that seeming more 
gently nurtured, and more civilized than they, had made 
them envy and hate me as a being of another species. I 
bargained with myself, then, that since I could not lay aside 
my superiority of intellect and education, I would do my 
best to disguise, and to sink in the rude seaman, all ap- 
pearance of better feeling and better accomplishments. 
1 foresaw then what has since happened, that, under the 
appearance of daring obduracy, I should acquire such a 
habitual command over my followers, that I might use it 
for the insurance of discipline, and for relieving the dis- 
tresses of the wretches who fell under our power. I saw, 
in short, that, to attain authority, I must assume the ex- 
ternal semblance, at least, of those over whom it was to 
be exercised. The tidings of my father’s fate, while it 
excited me to wrath and to revenge, confirmed the resolu- 
tion I had adopted. He also had fallen a victim to his 
superiority of mind, morals, and manners, above those 
whom he commanded. They were wont to call him the 
Gentleman ; and, unquestionably, they thought he waited 
some favourable opportunity to reconcile himself, perhaps 
at their expense, to those existing forms of society his 
habits seemed best to suit with, and, even therefore, they 
murdered him. Nature and justice alike called on me 
for revenge. I was soon at the head of a new body of 
the adventurers, who are so numerous in those islands. I 
sought not after those by whom I had been myself maroon- 
ed, but after the wretches who had betrayed my father ; 
and on them I took a revenge so severe, that it was of itself 
sufficient to stamp me with the character of that inexora- 
ble ferocity which I was desirous to be thought to possess 
and which, perhaps, was gradually creeping on my natur- 
al disposition in actual earnest. My manner, speech, 
and conduct, seemed so totally changed, that those who 


THE PIRATE. 


33 


formerly knew me were disposed to ascribe the alteration 
to my intercourse with the demons who haunted the sands 
of Coffin-key ; nay, there were some superstitious enough 
to believe, that 1 had actually formed a league with them." 

“ I tremble to hear the rest !” said Minna ; “ did you 
not become the monster of courage and cruelty whose 
character you assumed ?” 

“ If I have escaped being so, it is to you, Minna,” re- 
plied Cleveland, “ that the wonder must be ascribed. It 
is true, I have always endeavoured to distinguish my- 
self rather by acts of adventurous valour, than by 
schemes of revenge or of plunder, and that at length I 
could save lives by a rude jest, and sometimes, by the 
excess of the measures which I myself proposed, could 
induce those under me to intercede in favour of prison- 
ers ; so that the seeming severity of my character has 
netter served the cause of humanity, than had I appeared 
directly devoted to it.” 

He ceased, and, as Minna replied not a word, both re- 
mained silent for a little space, when Cleveland again 
resumed the discourse : — 

“ You are silent,” he said, “ Miss Troil, and I have 
injured myself in your opinion by the frankness with 
which I have laid my character before you. I may truly 
say that my natural disposition has been controlled, bul 
not altered, by the untoward circumstances in which I an 
placed.” 

“ I am uncertain,” said Minna, after a moment’s con 
sideiation, “ whether you had been thus candid, had you 
not known I should soon see your comrades, and discov- 
er from their conversation and their manners what you 
would otherwise gladly have concealed.” 

“ You do me injustice, Minna, cruel injustice. Ficm 
the instant that you knew me to be a sailor of fortune, aa 
adventurer, a bucanier, or, if you will have the broad 
word, a pirate, what had you to expect less than what 
1 have told you ?” 

“ You speak too truly,” said Minna — “ all this I might 
have anticipated, and I know not how I should have ex- 


34 


THE PIRATE. 


pected it otherwise. But it seemed to me that a war on the 
cruel and superstitious Spaniards had in it something en- 
nobling — something that refined the fierce employment to 
which you have just now given its true and dreaded name. 
I thought that the independent warriors of the Western 
Ocean, raised up, as it were, to punish the wrongs of so 
many murdered and plundered tribes, must have had 
something of gallant elevation, like that of the Sons of 
the North, whose long galleys avenged on so many coasts 
the oppressions of degenerate Rome. Thi^ I thought, 
and this I dreamed — I grieve that I am awakened and 
undeceived. Yet I blame you not for the erring of my 
own fancy. — Farewell, we must now part.” 

“ Say at least,” said Cleveland, “ that you do not hold 
me in horror for having told you the truth.” 

“ I must have time for reflection,” said Minna, “ time 
to weigh what you have said, ere I can fully understand 
my own feelings. Thus much, however, I can say even 
now, that he who pursues the wicked purpose of plunder, 
by means of blood and cruelty, and who must veil his 
remains of natural remorse under an affectation of supe- 
rior profligacy, is not, and cannot be, the lover whom 
Minna Troil expected to find in Cleveland ; and if she 
still love him, it must be as a penitent, and not as a hero.” 

So saying, she extricated herself from his grasp, (for 
he still endeavoured to detain her,) making an imperative 
sign to him to forbear from following her. — “ She is gone,” 
said Cleveland, looking after her ; “ wild and fanciful as 
she is, I expected not this. — She startled not at the name 
of my perilous course of life, yet seems totally unprepar- 
ed for the evil which must necessarily attend it ; and so 
all the merit I have gained, by my resemblance to a 
Norse Champion, or King of the Sea, is to be lost at 
once, because a gang of pirates do not prove to be a 
choir of saints. I would that Rackam, Hawkins, and the 
rest, had been at the bottom of the Race of Portland — 

I would the Pentland Frith had swept them to hell rather 
than to Orkney ! I will not, however, quit the chase of this 
angel for all that these fiends can do I will — I must to 


THE PIRATE. 


35 . 


Orkney before the Udaller makes his voyage thither — our 
meeting might alarm even his blunt understanding, al- 
though, thank Heaven, in this wild country, men know 
the nature of our trade only by hearsay, through our hon- 
est friends the Dutch, who take care never to speak very 
ill of those they make money by. — Well, if fortune would 
but stand my friend with this beautiful enthusiast, I would 
pursue her wheel no farther at sea, but set myself down 
amongst these rocks, as happy as if they were so many 
groves of bananas and palmettoes.” 

With these, and such thoughts, half rolling in his bo- 
som, half expressed in indistinct hints and murmurs, the 
pirate Cleveland returned to the mansion of Burgh- 
Westra. 


CHAPTER III. 

There was shaking of hands, and sorrow of heart, 

For the hour was approaching when merry folks must part ; 

So we call'd for our horses, and ask'd for our way, 

While the jolly old landlord said, Nothing’s to pay." 

LilUput, a Poen*. 

We do not dwell upon the festivities of the day, which 
had nothing in then! to interest the reader particularly. 
The table groaned under the usual plenty, which was 
disposed of by the guests with the usual appetite — the 
bowl of punch w’as filled and emptied with the same ce- 
lerity as usual — the men quaffed, and the women laughed 
■ — Claud Halcro rhymed, punned, and prai’sed John Dry- 
den — the Udaller bumpered and sung choruses — and the 
evening concluded, as usual, in the Rigging-loft, as it was 
Magnus TroiPs pleasure to term the dancing apartment. 

It was then and there that Cleveland, approaching 
Magnus, where he sat betwixt his tyvo daughters, intimat- 
ed his intention of going to Kirkwall in a small brig, 
which Bryce Snailsfoot, who had disposed of his goods 
14 


36 


THE PIRATE. 


with unprecedented celerity, had freighted thither .5 pro- 
cure a supply. 

Magnus heard the sudden proposal of his guest with 
surprise, not unmingled with displeasure, and demanded 
sharply of Cleveland, how long it was since he had learn- 
ed to prefer Bryce Snailsfoot’s company to his own ? 
Cleveland answered, with his usual bluntness of manner, 
that time and tide tarried for no one, and that he had his 
own particular reasons for making his trip to Kirkwall 
sooner than the Udaller proposed to set sail — that he 
hoped to meet with him and his daughters at the great 
fair, which was now closely approaching, and might per- 
haps find it possible to return to Zetland along with them. 

While he spoke this, Brenda kept her eye as much upon 
her sister as it was possible to do, without exciting gene- 
ral observation. She remarked, that Minna’s pale cheek 
became yet paler while Cleveland spoke, and that she 
seemed by compressing her lips, and slightly knitting hei 
brows, to be in the act of repressing the effects of strong 
interior emotion. But she spoke not ; and when Cleve- 
land, having bidden adieu to the Udaller, approached to 
salute her, as was then the custom, she received his fare- 
well without trusting herself to attempt a reply. 

Brenda had her own trial approaching ; for Mordaunt 
Mertoun, once so much loved by her father, was now in 
the act of making his cold parting from him, without re- 
ceiving a single look of friendly regard. There was, in- 
deed, sarcasm in the tone with which Magnus wished the 
youth a good journey, and recommended to him, if he 
met a bonny lass by the way, not to dream that she was 
in love, because she chanced to jest with him. Mertoun 
coloured at what be felt as an insult, though it was but 
half intelligible to him ; but he remembered Brenda, and 
suppressed every feeling of resentment. He proceeded to 
take his leave of the sisters. Minna, whose heart was con- 
siderably softened towards him, received his farewell, with 
some degree of interest ; but Brenda’s grief was .so visi- 
ble in tne kindness of her manner, and the moisture which 
gathered in her eye, that it was noticed even by the Udal- 


THE PIRATE. 


37 


ler, who exclaimed, half-angrily, “ Why, ay, ass, that 
may be right enough, for he was an old acquaintance ; 
but mind ! I have no will that he remain one.^’ 

Mertoun, who was slowly leaving the apartment, half 
overheard this disparaging observation, and half turned 
round to resent it. But his purpose failed him when he 
saw that Brenda had been obliged to have recourse to her 
handkerchief to hide her emotion ; and the sense that it 
was excited by his departure,- obliterated every thought 
of her father’s unkindness. He retired — the other guests 
followed his example ; and many of them, like Cleveland 
and himself, took their leave over-night, with the intention 
of commencing their homeward journey on the succeed- 
ing morning. 

That night, the mutual sorrow of Minna and Brenda, 
if it could not wholly remove the reserve which had es- 
tranged the sisters from each other, at least melted all its 
frozen and unkindly symptoms. They wept in each oth- 
er’s arms ; and though neither spoke, yet each became 
dearer to the other ; because they felt that the grief which 
called forth these drops, had a source common to them 
both. 

It is probable, that though Brenda’s tears were most 
abundant, the grief of Minna was most deeply seated ; 
for long after the younger had sobbed herself asleep, like 
a child, upon her sister’s bosom, Minna lay awake, watch- 
ing the dubious twilight, while tear after tear slowly gath- 
ered in her eye, and found a current down her cheek, as 
soon as it became too heavy to be supported by her long 
black silken eyelashes. As she lay, bewildered among 
the sorrowful thoughts which supplied these tears, she was 
surprised to distinguish, beneath the window, tlie sounds 
of music. At first she supposed it was some freak of 
Claud Halcro, whose fantastic humour sometimes indulg- 
ed itself in such serenades. But it was not the gue ol 
the old minstrel, but the guitar that she heard ; an in- 
strument which none in the island knew how to touch 
except Cleveland, who had learned, in his intercourse 

VOL. II. 


38 


THE riRATE. 


with the South-American Spaniards, to play on it with 
superior execution. Perhaps it was in those climates 
also that he had learned the song, which, though he now 
sung it under the window of a maiden of Thule, had 
certainly never been composed for the native of a climate 
so northerly and so severe, since it spoke of productions 
of the earth and skies, which are there unknown. 


1 . 

** Love wakes and weeps 
“ While Beauty sleeps ! 

O for music’s softest numbers, 

To prompt a theme, 

For Beauty’s dream, 

Soft as the pillow of her slumbers 

2 . 

“ I'hrough groves of palm 
Sigh gales of balm, 

Fire-flies on the air are wheeling ; 

While through the gloom 
Comes soft perfume. 

The distant beds of flowers revealing. 

3 . 

** O wake and live. 

No dream can give 
A shadow’d bliss, the real excelling ; 

No longer sleep. 

From lattice peep. 

And list the tale that Love is telling!” 

The voice of Cleveland was deep, rich, and manly, and 
accorded well with ,the Spanish air, to which the words, 
probably a translation from the same language, had been 
adapted. His invocation would not probably have beer 
fruitless, could Minna have arisen without awaking her sis- 
ter. But that was impossible ; for Brenda, who, as we 
have already mentioned, had wept bitterly before she had 
sunk into repose, now lay with her face on her sister’s 
neck, and one arm stretched around her, in the attitude 
of a child which has cried itself asleep in the arms of its 
nurse. It was impossible for Minna to extricate herselj 
from her grasp without awaking her ; and she could not, 


THE tiRATE. 


39 


therefore, execute her hasty purpose, of donning her 
gown, and approaching the window to speak with Cleve- 
iand, who, she had no doubt, had resorted to this con- 
trivance, to procure an interview. The restraint was 
■sufliciently provoking, for it was more than probable that 
her lover came to take his last farewell ; but that Brenda, 
inimical as she seemed to be of late towards Cleveland, 
should awake and witness it, was a thought not to be en- 
dured. 

There was a short pause, m which Minna endeavoured 
more than once, with as much gentleness as possible, to 
unclasp Brenda’s arm from her neck ; but whenever she 
attempted it, the slumberer muttered some little pettish 
sound, like a child disturbed in its sleep, which sufficiently 
showed that , perseverance in the attempt would awaken 
her fully. 

To her great vexation, therefore, Minna was compelled 
to remain still and silent ; when her lover, as if deter- 
mined upon gaining her ear by music of another strain, 
frung the following fragment of a sea-ditty : — 


** Farewell 1 Farewell ! the voice you hear, 
Has left its last soft tone with you, — 

Its next must join the seaward cheer, 

And shout among the shouting crew. 

‘‘ The accents which I scarce could form 
Beneath your fi-own’s contr«)Hing check, 
Must give the word, above the storm, 

To cut the mast, and clear the wreck. 

The timid eye I dared not raise, — 

The hand, that shook when press’d to thioe. 
Must point the guns upon the chase,-— 

Must bid the deadly cutlass shine. 

To all I love, or hope, or fear, — 

Honour, or own, a long adieu 1 
To aH that life has soft and dear, 

Farewell ! save memory of you ”'6 


40 


THE PIRATE. 


He was again silent ; and again she, to whom tne ser- 
enade was addressed, strove in vain to arise without rous- 
ing her sister. It was impossible ; and she had nothing 
before her but the unhappy thought that Cleaveland was 
taking le^ve in his desolation, without a single glance, or 
a single word. He, too, whose temper was so fiery, yet 
who subjected his violent mood with such sedulous at- 
tention to her will, — could she but have stplen a moment 
to say adieu — to caution him against new quarrels with 
Mertoun — to implore him to detach himself from such 
comrades as he had described, — could she but have done 
this, who could say what effect such parting admonitions 
might have had upon his character — nay, upon the future 
events of his life ? 

Tantalized by such thoughts, Minna was about to make 
another and decisive effort, when she heard voices be- 
neath the window, and thought she could distinguish that 
they were those of Cleveland and Mertoun, speaking in a 
sharp tone, which, at the same time, seemed cautiously 
suppressed, as if the speakers feared being overheard. 
Alarm now mingled with her former desire to rise from bed, 
and she accomplished at once the purpose which she had 
so often attempted in vain. Brenda’s arm was unloosed 
from her sister’s neck, without the sleeper receiving more 
alarm than provoked two or three unintelligible murmurs ; 
while with equal speed and silence, Minna put on some 
part of her dress, with the intention to steal to the win- 
ilow. But, ere she could accomplish this, the sound of 
the voices without was exchanged for that of blows and 
struggling, which terminated suddenly by a deep groan. 

Terrified at this last signal of mischief, Minna sprung 
to the window, and endeavoured to open it, for the per- 
sons were so close under the walls of the house that she 
could not see them, save by putting her head out of the 
casement. The iron hasp was stiff and rusted, and, as 
generally happens, the haste with which she laboured to 
undo it only renaered the task more diffi/rult. When it 
was accomplished, and Minna had eagerly thrust her body 
Half out at the casement, those who had created the sounds 


THE PIRATE. 


41 


which alarmed Rer were become invisible, excepting that 
she saw a shadow cross the moonlight, the substance of 
which must have been in the act of turning a corner, which 
concealed it from her sight. The shadow moved slowly, 
and seemed that of a man who supported another upon 
his shoulders ; an indication which put the climax to 
Minna’s agony of mind. The window was not above eight 
feet from the ground, and she hesitated not to throw her- 
self from it hastily, and to pursue the object which had 
excited her terror. 

But when she came to the corner of the buildings from 
which the shadow seemed to have been projected, she 
discovered nothing which could point out the way that 
the figure had gone ; and, after a moment’s considera- 
tion, became sensible that all attempts at pursuit would 
be alike wild and fruitless. Besides all the projections 
and recesses of the many-angled mansion, and its nume- 
rous offices — besides the various cellars, store-houses, 
stables, and so forth, which defied her solitary search, 
there was a range of low rocks, stretching down to the 
haven, and which were, in fact, a continuation of the ridge 
which formed its pier. These rocks had many inden- 
tures, hollows, and caverns, into any one of which the 
figure to which the shadow belonged miglit have retired 
with his fatal burden; for fatal, she feaied, it was most 
likely to prove. 

A moment’s reflection, as we have said, convinced 
Minna of the folly of further pursuit. Her next thought 
was to alarm the family ; but what tale had she to tell, 
and of whom was that tale to be told ? — On the other 
hand, the wounded man — if indeed he were wounded — 
alas, if indeed he were not mortally wounded! — might 
not be past the reach of assistance ; and, with this idea, 
she was about to raise her voice, when she was interrupted 
by that of Claud Halcro, who was returning apparently 
from the haven, and singing, in his manner, a scrap of 
an old Norse ditty, which might run thus in English 

VOL. II. 


42 


THE PIRATE. 


" And you shall deal the funeral dole j 
Ay, deal it, mother mine. 

To weary body, and to heavy soul, 

The white bread and the wine. 

And you shall deal my horses of pride ; 

Ay, deal them, mother mine ; 

And you shall deal my lands so wide, 

And deal my castles nine. • 

But deal not vengeance for the deed. 

And deal not for the crime : 

The body to its place, and the soul to Heaven's grace, 

And the rest in God’s own time.” 

The singular adaptation of these rhymes to the situation 
in which she found herself, seemed to Minna like a warn- 
ing from heaven. We are speaking of a land of omens 
and superstitions, and perhaps will scarce be understood 
by those whose limited imagination cannot conceive how 
strongly these operate upon the human mind during a 
certain progress of society. A line of Virgil, turned up 
casually, wa3 received in the seventeenth century, and in 
the court of England^ as an intimation of future events ; 
and no wonder that a maiden of the distant and wild isles 
of Zetland should have considered as an injunction from 
Heaven, verses which happened to convey a sense anal- 
ogous to her present situation. 

“I will be silent,’’ she muttered, — “I will seal my lips — 

The body to its place, and the soul to Heaven’s grace. 

And the rest in God’s own time.” 

“Who speaks there?” said Claud Halcro, in some 
alarm ; for he had not in his travels in foreign parts, been 
able by any means to rid himself of his native supersti- 
tions, In the condition to which fear and horror had 
reduced her, Minna was at first unable to reply ; and 
Halcro, fixing his eyes upon the female white figure, 
which he sawJn distinctly, (for she stood in the shadow oi 
the house, and the morning was thick and misty,) began 
to conjure her in s-.i ancient rhyme which occurred to him 


THE PIRATE. 


43 


as suited for the occasion, and which had in its gibberish 
a wild and unearthly sound, which may be lost in the en 
suing translation : — 

Saint Magnus control thee, that martyr of treason 
Saint Ronan rebuke tliee, with rhyme and with reason 
By the mass of Saint Martin, the might of Saint Mary, 

Be thou gone, or thy weird shaU be worse if thou tarry! 

If of good, go hence and hallow thee, — 

If of ill, let the earth sw’allow thee, — 

If thou’rt of air, let the grey mist fold thee, — 

If of earth, let Uie swart mine bold thee, — 

If a Pixie, seek thy ring, — 

If a Nixie, seek thy spring ; 

If on middle earth thou’st been 
Slave of sorrow, shame, and sin. 

Hast eat the bread of toil and strife. 

And dree’d the lot which men call life, 

iiegone to thy stone ! for thy coffin is scant of ihee. 

The worm, thy play-fellow, wails for the want of tliee, — 

Hence, houseless ghost! let the earth hide thee, 

Till Michciel shall blow the blast, see that there thou bide thee !— 
Phantom, fly hence ! take tne Cross for a token, 

Hence pass till Hallowmass ! — my spell is spoKen ’* 

It is I, Halcro,” muttered Minna, in a tone so thin 
and low, that it might have passed for the faint reply of 
the conjured phantom. 

“ You ! — you !” said Halcro, his tone of alarm chang- 
ing to one of extreme surprise ; ^‘by this moonlight, which 
is waning, and so it is ! — Who could have thought 'to find 
you, my most lovely night, wandering abroad m your own 
element ! — But you saw them, I reckon, as well as IP- 
bold enough in you to follow them, though.” 

“ Saw whom ? — follow whom ?” said Minna, hoping to 
gain some information on the subject of her fears and 
■anxiety. 

“ The corpse-lights which danced at the haven,” re- 
plied Halcro ; “ they bode no good, I promise you- you 
wot well what the old rhyme says — 

Where oorpse-liglit 
Dances bright. 


44 


THE PIRATE. 


Be it day or night, 

Be it by light or dark, 

There shall corpse lie stiff and stark. 

I went half as far as the haven to look after them, but 
they had vanished. I think '1 saw a boat put off, how- 
ever, — some one bound for the haaf, I suppose. — I would 
we had good news of this fishing — there was Norna left 
Lisin anger, and then these corpse-lights! — Well, God 
help the while! 1 am an old man, and can but wish that 
all were well over. — But how now, my pretty Minna ? 
tears in your eyes ! — And now that I see you in the fair 
moonlight, barefooted too, by Saint Magnus ! — Were 
there no stockings of Zetland wool soft enough for these 
pretty feet and ankles, that glance so white in the moon- 
beam — What, silent ! — angry, perhaps,” he added, in 
a more serious tone, “at my nonsense? For shame, 
silly maiden ! — Remember I am old enough to be your 
father, and have always loved you as my child.” 

“ I am not angry,” said Minna, constraining herself to 
speak — “ but heard you nothing ? — saw you nothing — 
They must have passed you.” 

“ They ?” said Claud Halcro ; “ what mean you by 
they ? — is it the corpse-lights } — No, they did not pass by 
me, but I think they have passed by you, and blighted 
you with their influence, for you are as pale as a spectre. 
— Come, come, Minna,” he added, opening a side-door 
of the dwelling, “ these moonlight walks are fitter for old 
>oets than for young maidens — And so liglitly clad as you 
ire ! Maiden, you should take care how you give your- 
self to the breezes of a Zetland night, for they bring more 
sleet than odours upon their wings. — But, maiden, go in ; 
for, as glorious John says — or, as he does not say — for I 
cannot remember how his verse chimes — but, as I say 
myself, in a pretty poem, written when my muse was in 
aer teens, — 

Menseful maidea ne’er should rise, 

Till the first beam tinge the skies ; 

Silk-fringed eyelids still should close, 

Till the sun has kissed the rose ; 


THE PIRATE, 


46 


Maiden’s foot we should not view. 

Mark’d with tiny print on dew, 

Till the opening flowerets spread 
Carpet meet for beauty’s tread — 

Stay; what comes next ^ — let me see.” 

When the spirit of recitation seized on Claud Halcro, he 
forgot time and place, and might have kept his companion 
in the cold air for half an hour, giving poetical reasons why 
she ought to have been in bed. But she interrupted him 
by the question, earnestly pronounced, yet in a voice which 
was scarcely articulate, holding Halcro, at the same time, 
with a trembling and convulsive grasp, as if to support 
lierself from falling,-— saw you no one in the boat which 
put to sea but now ?” 

“ Nonsense,” replied Halcro ; “ how could 1 see any 
one, when light and distance only enabled me to know 
that it was a boat and not a grampus 

“ But there must have been some one in -the boat.^” 
repeated Minna, scarce conscious of what she said. 

“ Certainly,” answered the poet ; “ boats seldom work 
to windward of their own accord.. But come, this is all 
folly ; and so, as the queen says, in an old play, which 
was revived for the stage by rare Will D’Avenant, ‘ To 
bed — to bed — to bed!’ ” 

They separated, and Minna’s limbs conveyed her with 
difficulty, through several devious passages, to her own 
chamber, where she stretched herself cautiously beside 
her still sleeping sister, with a mind harassed with the 
most agonizing apprehensions. That she had heard 
Cleveland, she was positive — the tenor of the songs left 
her no doubt on that subject. If not equally certain that 
she had heard young Mertoun’s voice in hot quarrel with 
her lover, the impression to that effect was strong on her 
mind. The groan with which the struggle seemed to 
terminate — the fearful indication from which it seemed 
that the conqueror had borne off the lifeless body of his 
viclin — all tended to prove that some fatal event had 
cond jded the contest. And which of the unhappy men 
liad lallen ? — which had met a bloody, death } — which had 


46 


THE PIRATE. 


acliieved a fatal and a bloody victory ? — These were ques- 
tions to which the still small voice of interior conviction 
answered, that her lover Cleveland, from character, tem- 
])er, and habits, was most likely to have been the survivor 
of the fray. She received from the reflection an invol- 
untary consolation which she almost detested herself for 
admitting, when she recollected that it was at once dark- 
ened with her lover’s guilt, and embittered with the de- 
struction of Brenda’s happiness for ever. 

“ Innocent, unhappy sister !” such were her reflec- 
tions ; ‘‘ thou that art ten times better than I, because so 
unpretending — so unassuming in thine excellence ! How 
is it possible that I should cease to feel a pang, which is 
only transferred from my bosom to thine ?” 

As these cruel thoughts crossed her mind, she could 
not refrain ffem straining her sister so close to her bosom, 
that, after a heavy sigh, Brenda awoke. 

Sister,” she said, “ is it you ? — I dreamed I lay on 
one of those monuments which Claud Halcro described 
to us, where the effigy of the inhabitant beneath lies 
carved in stone upon the sepulchre. I dreamed such a 
marble form lay by my side, and that it suddenly acquir- 
ed enough of life and animation to fold me to its cold, 
moist bosom — and it is your’s, Minna, that is indeed so 
chilly. — You are ill, my dearest Minna ! for God’s sake, 
let me rise and call Euphane Fea. — What ails you ? has 
Norna been here again ?” 

“ Call no one hither, said Minna, detaining her ; 
“ nothing ails me for which any one has a remedy — noth- 
ing but apprehensions of evil worse than even Norna could 
prophesy. But God is above all, my dear Brenda ; and 
let us pray to him to turn, as he only can, our evil into 
good.” 

They did jointly repeat their usual prayer for strength 
and protection from on high, and again composed them- 
selves to sleep, suffering no word save “ God bless you,” 
to pass betwixt them when their devotions were finished , 
thus scrupulously dedicating to Heaven their last waking 
words, if human frailty prevented them from command 


THE PIRATE. 


47 


ing the’r last waking thoughts. Brenda slept first, and 
Minna, strongly resisting the dark and evil presentiments 
which again began to crowd themselves upon her imagina 
tion, was at last so fortunate, as to slumber also. 

The storm which Halcro had expected began about 
day-break — a squall, heavy with wind and rain, such ns 
is often felt, even during the finest part of the season, in 
these latitudes. At the whistle of the wind, and the clat- 
ter of the rain on the shingle-roofing of the fishers’ huts, 
many a poor woman was awakened, and called on her 
children to hold up their little hands and join in prayer for 
the safety of the dear husband and father, who was even 
then at the mercy of the disturbed elements. Around 
the house of Burgh-Westra, chimneys howled, and win- 
dows clashed. The props and rafters of the higher 
parts of the building, most of them formed out of wreck- 
wood, groaned and quivered, as fearing to be again dis- 
persed by the tempest. But the daughters of Magnus 
Troil continued to sleep as softly and as sweetly as if the 
hand of Chantry had formed them out of statuary-mar- 
ble. The squall had passed away, and the sunbeams, 
dispersing the clouds which drifted to leeward, shone full 
through the lattice, when Minna first started from the 
profound sleep into which fatigue and mental exhaustion 
liad lulled her, and raising herself on her arm, began to 
recall events which, after this interval of profound repose, 
seemed almost to resemble the baseless visions of the 
night. She almost doubted if what she recalled of hor- 
ror, previous to her starting from her bed, was not indeed 
the fiction of a dream, suggested, perhaps, by some ex- 
ternal sounds. 

“ I will see Claud Halcro instantly,” she said ; “ he 
may know something of these strange noises, as he was 
stirring at the time.” 

With that she sprung from bed, but hardly stood up- 
right on the floor, ere her sister exclaimed, “ Gracious 
Heaven ! Minna, what ails your foot — ydur ankle ?” 

She looked down, and saw with surprise, which amount- 
ed to agony, that both her feet. But particularly one of 


48 


THE PIRATE. 


'hem, was stained with dark crimson, resemblin,,5 the col- 
our of dried blood. 

Without attempting to answer Brenda, she rushed to 
the window, and cast a desperate look on the grass be- 
neath, for there she knew she must have contracted the 
fatal stain. But the rain, which had fallen there in treble 
quantity, as well from the heavens as from the eaves of 
the house, had washed away that guilty witness, if indeed 
such had ever existed. All was fresh and fair, and 
the blades of grass, overcharged and bent with rain-drops 
glittered like diamonds in the bright morning sun. 

While Minna stared upon the spangled verdure, with 
her full dark eyes fixed and enlarged to circles by the 
.ntensity of her terror, Brenda was hanging about her, 
and with many an eager inquiry, pressed to know whether 
or how she had hurt herself ? 

“ A piece of glass cut through my shoe,” said Minna, 
bethinking herself that some excuse was necessary to 
her sister ; “ I scarce felt it at the time.” 

And yet see how it has bled,” said her sister. 

Sweet Minna,” she added, approaching her with a 
wetted towel, “ let me wipe the blood off — the hurt may 
De worse than you think of.” 

But as she approached, Minna, who saw no other way 
of preventing discovery that the blood with which she 
was stained had never flowed in her own veins, harshly 
and hastily repelled the proffered kindness. Poor Bren- 
da, unconscious of any offence which she had given to 
her sister, drew back two or three paces on finding her 
service thus unkindly refused, and stood gazing at Minna, 
with looks in which there was more of surprise and mor- 
tified affection than of resentment, but which had yet 
something also of natural displeasure. 

“ Sister,” said she, “ I thought we had agreed but 
last night that, happen to us what might, we would at 
least love each other.” 

‘‘ Much may happen betwixt night and morning,” an- 
swered Minna, in woyds rather wrenched from her by her 


THE PIRATE. 


49 


situation, than flowing forth the voluntary interpreters ol 
her thoughts.” 

“ Much may indeed have happened in a night so stor 
my,” answered Brenda ; for see where the very wail 
around Euphane’s plant-a-cruive has been blown down : 
but neither wind nor rain, nor aught else, can cool oui 
affection, Minna.” 

‘‘ But that may chance,” replied Minna, “ which may 
convert it into ” 

The rest of the sentence she muttered in a tone so 
indistinct, that it could not be apprehended ; while, at 
the same time, she washed the blood-stains from her feet 
and left ankle. Brenda, who still remained looking on 
at some distance, endeavoured in vain to assume some 
tone which might re-establish kindness and confidence 
betwixt them. 

“ You were right,” she said, “ Minna, to suffer no 
one to help you to dress so simple a scratch — standing 
where I do it is scarce visible.” 

“ The most cruel wounds,” replied Minna, “ are those 
which make no outward show — Are you sure you see it 
at all ?” 

“ O yes !” replied Brenda, framing her answer . as she 
thought would best please her sister ; “ I see a very slight 
scratch ; nay, now you draw on the stocking, I can se(j 
nothing.” 

“ You do indeed see nothing,” answered Minna, some 
what wildly ; “ but the time will soon come that all — ay, 
all — will be seen and known.” 

So saying, she hastily completed her dress, and led 
the way to breakfast, where she assumed her place 
amongst the guests ; but with a countenance so pale and 
haggard, and manners and speech so altered, and so be- 
wildered, that it excited the attention of the whole com- 
pany, and the utmost anxiety on the part of her father 
Magnus Troil. Many and various were the conjectures ot 
the guests, concerning a distemperature which seemed rath- 
er mental than '-orporeal. Some hinted that the maiden 

VOL. II 


50 


THE PIRATE. 


had been struck with an evil eye, and something they 
muttered about Norna of the Fitful-head ; some talked 
of the departure of Captain Cleveland, and murmured, 
“ it was a shame for a young lady to take on so after a 
landlouper, of whom no one knew any thing and this 
contemptuous epithet was in particular bestowed on the 
Captain by Mistress Baby Yellowley, while she was in 
the act of wra^pping round her old skinny neck the very 
handsome owerlay (as she called it) wherewith the said 
Captain had presented her. The old Lady Glowrpwrum 
had a system of her own, which she hinted to Mistress 
Yellowley, after thanking God' that her own connection 
with the Burgh-Westra famdy was by the lass’s mother, 
who was a canny Scotswoman, like herself. 

“ For as to these Troils, you see. Dame Yellowley, 
for as high as they hold their heads, they say that ken, 
(winking sagaciously,) that there is a bee in their bonnet ; 
— that Norna, as they call her, for it’s not her right name 
neither, is at whiles far beside her right mind, — and they 
that ken the cause, say the Fowd was some gate or oth- 
er linked in with it, for he will never hear an ill word of 
her. But I was in Scotland then, or I might have kend 
the real cause as weel as other folk. At ony rate there 
is a kind of wildness in the blood. Ye ken very weel 
daft folk dinna bide to be contradicted ; and I’ll say that 
for the Fowd — he likes to be contradicted as ill as ony 
man in Zetland. But it shall never be said that I said 
ony ill of the house that I am sae nearly connected wi’. 
Only ye will mind, dame, it is through the Sinclairs that 
we are a-kin, not through the Troils, — and the Sinclairs 
are kend far and wide for a wise generation, dame. 
But 1 see there is the stirrup-cup coming round.” 

“ I W'onder,” said Mistress jBaby to her brother, as 
soon as the Lady Glowrowrum turned from her, “ what 
gars that muckle wife dame, dame, dame, that gate at me? 
She might ken the blude of the Clinkscales is as gude 
SLS ony Glowrowrums amang them.” 

The guests, meanwhile, were fast taking their depar- 
ure, scarcely noticed by Magnus, who was so much en- 


THE PIRATE. 


61 


grossed with Minna’s indisposition, that, contrai/ to his 
hospitable wont, he suffered them to go away unsaluted. 
And thus concluded, amidst anxiety and illness, the fes- 
tival of Saint John, as celebrated on that season at the 
house of Burgh-Westra ; adding another caution to that 
of the Emperor of Ethiopia, — with how little security 
man can reckon upon the days which he destines to hap- 
piness. 


CHAPTER IV. 

But this sad evil which doth her infest, 

Doth course of natural cause far exceed, 

And housed is within her hollow breast, 

Tljat either seems some cursed witch’s deed, 

Or evill spright that in her doth such torment breed. 

Fairij Quetn, Book 111. Canto III. 

The term had now elapsed, by several days, when Mor- 
dauntMertoun, as he had promised at his departure, should 
have returned to his father’s abode at Jarlshof, but there 
were no tidings of his arrival. Such delay might, at anoth- 
er time, have excited little curiosity and no anxiety ; for 
old Swertha, who took upon her the office of thinking 
and conjecturing for the little household, would have con- 
cluded that he had remained behind the other guests 
upon some party of sport or pleasure. But she knew that 
Mordaunt had not been lately in favour with Magnus 
Troil ; she knew that he proposed his stay at Burgh- 
Westra should be a short one, upon account of his father’s 
health, to whom, notwithstanding the little encouragement 
which his filial piety received, he paid uniform attention. 
Swertha knew all this, and she became anxious. She 
watched the looks of her master, the elder Mertoun ; but, 
wrapt in dark and stern uniformity of composure, his 
countenance, like the surface of a midnight lake, enabled 
no one to penetrate into what was beneath. His studies, 
liis solitary meals, his lonely walks, succeeded each other 


52 


THE PIRATE. 


m unvaried rotation, and seemed undisturbed by the least 
thought about Mordaunt’s absence. 

At length such reports reached Svvertha’s ear, from 
various quarters, that she became totally unable to con- 
ceal her anxiety, and resolved, at the risk of provoking 
her master into fury, or perhaps that of losing her place 
in his household, to force upon his notice the doubts 
which afflicted her own mind. Mordaunt’s good-hurnour 
and goodly person must indeed have made no small im- 
pression on the withered and selfish heart of the poor old 
woman, to induce her to take a course so desperate, and 
from which her friend the ranzelman endeavoured in vain 
to deter her. Still, however, conscious that a miscar- 
riage in the matter, would, like the loss of Trinculo’s bot- 
tle in the horse-pool, be attended not only with dishonour, 
but with infinite loss, she determined to proceed on her 
high emprize wkh as much caution as was consistent with 
the attempt. 

We have already mentioned, that it seemed a part ol 
the very nature of this reserved and unsocial being, at 
least since his retreat into the utter solitude of Jarlshof, 
to endure no one to start a subject of conversation, or to 
put any question to him, that did not arise out of urgent 
and pressing emergency. Swertha was sensible, there- 
fore, that, in order to open the discourse favourably 
which she proposed to hold with her master, she must 
contrive that it should originate with himself. 

To accomplish this purpose, while busied in preparing 
ihe table for Mr. Mertoun’s simple and solitary dinner- 
meal, she formally adorned the table with two covers in- 
stead of one, and made all her other preparations as if he 
was to have a guest or companion at dinner. 

The artifice succeeded ; for Mertoun, on coming 
fi’om his study, no sooner saw the table thus arranged, 
than he asked Swertha, who, waiting the effect of her 
stratagem as a fisher watches his ground-baits, was fiddling 
up and down the room, ‘‘ Whether Mordaunt was not 
eturned from Burgh-Westra ?” 


THE PIRATE. 


53 


This question was the cue for Swertha, and she an- 
swered, in a voice of sorrowful anxiety, half-real half- 
affected, “ Na, na ! — nae sic divot had dunted at tlu ]i 
door. It wad be blithe news indeed, to ken that younif 
Maister Mordaunt, puir dear bairn, were safe at hame.’ 

“ And, if he be not at home, why should you lay a 
cover for him, you doting fool ?” replied Mertoun, in a 
tone well calculated to stop the old woman’s proceedings. 
But she replied boldly, “ that, indeed, somebody should 
take thought about Maister Mordaunt ; a’ that she could 
do was to have seat and plate ready for him when he came. 
But she thought the dear bairn had been ower lang awa’ ; 
and, if she maun speak out, she had her ain fears when 
and whether he might ever come hame.” 

“ Your fears !” said Mertoun, his eyes flashing as they 
usually did when his hour of ungovernable passion ap- 
proached ; “ do you speak of your idle fears to me, who 
know that all of your sex, that is not fickleness, and folly, 
and self-conceit, and self-will, is a bundle of idiotical 
fears, vapours, and tremors ? What are your fears to me, 
you foolish old hag ?” 

It is an admirable quality in womankind, that when a 
breach of the laws of natural affection comes under their 
observation, the whole sex is in arms. Let a rumour arise 
in the street of a parent that has misused a child, or a 
child that has insulted a parent, — I say nothing of the case 
of husband and wife, where the interest may be account- 
ed for in sympathy, — and all the women within hearing 
will take animated and decided part with the sufferer. 
Swertha, notwithstanding her greed and avarice, had her 
share of the generous feeling which does so much honour 
to her sex, and was, on this occasion, so much carried on 
by its impulse, that she confronted her master, and up- 
braided him with his hard-hearted indifference, with a 
boldness at which she herself was astonished. 

To be sure it wasna her that suld be fearing for her 
young maister, Maister Mordaunt, even although he was 
as she might weel say, the very sea-calf of her heart ; 

VOL II. 


64 


THE PIRATE. 


Dili ony other father, but his honour himsell, wad have 
had speerings made after the poor lad, and him gane this 
eight-days from Burgh-Westra, and naebody kend when 
or where he had gane. There was nae a bairn in the 
howfF but was maining for him ; for he made all their bits 
of boats with his knife ; there wadna be a dry eye in the 
parish, if aught worse than weal should befall him, — na 
no ane, unless it might be his honour’s ain.” 

Mertoun had been much struck, and even silenced, by 
the insolent volubility of his insurgent housekeeper ; 
but, at the last sarcasm, he imposed on her silence in her 
turn with an audible voice, accompanied with one of the 
most terrific glances which his dark eye and stern features 
could express. But Swertha, who, as she afterwards, 
acquainted the ranzelman, was wonderfully supported 
during the whole scene, would not be controlled by the 
loud voice and ferocious look of her master, but proceed- 
ed in the same tone as before. 

His honour,” she said, “ had made an unco wark 
because a wdieen bits of kists and duds, that naebody had 
use for, had been gathered on the beach by the poor 
bodies of the township ; and here was the bravest lad in 
the country lost, and cast away, as it were, before his 
een, and nae ane asking what was come o’ him.” 

“ What should come of him but good, you old fool,” 
answered Mr. Mertoun, ‘‘ as far, at least, as there can be 
good in any of the follies he spends his time in ?” 

This was spoken rather in a scornful than an angry 
tone, and Swertha, who had got into the spirit of the dia- 
logue, was resolved not to let it drop, now that the fire ol 
her opponent seemed to slacken. 

“ O ay, to be sure I am an auld fule, — ^but if Maistei 
Mordaunt should have settled down in the Roost, as mair 
than ae boat had been lost in that wearyfu’ squall the other 
morning — by good luck it was short as it was sharp, or 
naething could have lived in it — or if he were drowned 
n a loch coming hame on foot, or if he were killed by 
miss of footing on a craig — the haill island kend how ven- 
turesome he was — who,” said Swertha, “ will be the auld 


THE PIRATE. 


55 


fule then ?” And she added a pathel/i ejaculation, that 
‘ God would protect the poor motherless bairn ! for if he 
had had a mother, there would have been search jiade 
after him before now.” 

This last sarcasm affected Mertoun powerfully, — his 
jaw quivered, his face grew pale, and he muttered to 
Swertha to go into his study, (where she was scarcely 
ever permitted to enter,) and fetch him a bottle which 
stood there. 

“ O ho !” quoth Swertha to herself, as she hastened on 
the commission, “ my master knows where to find a cup of 
comfort to qualify his water with upon fitting occasions.” 

There was indeed a case of such bottles as were usu- 
ally employed to hold strong waters, but the dust and cob- 
webs in which they were enveloped showed that they had 
not been touched for many years. With some difficulty 
Swertha extracted the cork of one of them, by the help 
of a fork — for cork-screw was there none at Jarlshof — 
and having ascertained by smell, and, in case of any mis- 
take, by a moderate mouthful, that it contained wholesome 
Barbadoes-waters, she carried it into the room, where her 
master still continued to struggle with his faintness. She 
then began to pour a small quantity into the nearest cup 
that she could find, wisely judging, that, upon a person 
so much un^iccustomed to the use of spiritous liquors, a 
little might produce a strong effect. But the patient 
signed to her impatiently to fill the cup, which might hold 
more than the third of an English pint measure, up to the 
verv brim, and swallowed it down without hesitation. 

“ Now the saunts above have a care on us said 
Swertha ; he will be drunk as weel as mad, and wha is 
to guide him then, I wonder ?” 

But Mertoun’s breath and colour returned, without the 
slightest symptom of intoxication ; on the contrary, Swer- 
vha afterwards reported, that, although she had always had 
n firm opinion in favour of a dram, yet she never saw one 
work such miracles — he spoke mair like a man of the 
middle world, than she had ever heard him since she had 
entered his service. 


56 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Swertha,” he said, “ you are right in this matter, and 
I was wrong. — Go down to the ranzelrnan directly, tell 
him to come and speak with me, without an instant’s de- 
lay, and bring me special word what boats and people he 
can command ; I will employ them all in the search, and 
they shall be plentifully rewarded.” 

Stimulated by the spur which maketh the old woman 
proverbially to trot, Swertha posted down to the hamlet, 
with all the speed of threescore, rejoicing that her sym- 
pathetic ieelings were likely to achieve their own reward, 
having given rise to a quest which promised to be so lu- 
crative, and in the profits whereof she was determined to 
have her share, shouting out as she w^ent, and long before 
she got within hearing, the names of Niel Ronaldson, 
Sweyn Erickson, and the other friends and confederates 
who were interested in her mission. To say the truth, 
notwithstanding that the good dame really felt a deep in- 
terest in Mordaunt Mertoun, and was mentally troubled 
on account of his absence, perhaps few things would have 
disappointed her more than if he had at this moment start- 
ed up in her path safe and sound, and rendered unneces- 
sary, by his appearance, the expense and the bustle of 
searching after him. 

Soon did Swertha accomplish her business in the vil- 
lage, and adjust with the senators of the township her own 
little share of per centage upon the profits likely to accrue 
on her mission ; and speedily did she return to Jarlshof, 
with Niel Ronaldson by her side, schooling him to the 
best of her skill in all the peculiarities of her master. 

“ Aboon a’ things,” she said, “ never make him wait 
for an answer ; and speak loud and distinct, as if you 
were hailing a boat, — for he dowma bide to say the same 
Jiing twice over ; and if he asks about distance, ye may 
make leagues for miles, for he kens naething about the 
face of the earth that he lives upon ; and if he speak of 
siller, ye may ask dollars for shillings, for he minds them 
nae mair than sclate-stanes.” 

Thus tutored, Niel Ronaldson was introduced into 
die presence of Mertoun but was utterly confounded to 


THE PIRATE. 


57 


find that he could not act upon the system of deception 
which had been projected. — When he attempted, by some 
exaggeration of distance and peril, to enhance the hire 
of the boats and of the men, (for the search was to be by 
sea and land,) he found himself at once cut short by Mer- 
toun, who showed not only the most perfect knowledge 
of the country, but of distances, tides, currents, and all 
belonging to the navigation of those seas, although these 
were topics with which he had hitherto appeared to be 
totally unacquainted. The ranzelman, therefore, trem- 
bled when they came to speak of the recompense to be 
afforded for their exertions in the search ; for it was not 
more unlikely that Mertoun should be well informed ol 
what was just and proper upon this head than upon oth- 
ers ; and Niel remembered the storm of his fury, when, 
at an early period after he had settled at Jarlshof, he 
drove Swertha and Sweyn Erickson from his presence. 
As, however, he stood hesitating betwixt the opposite fears 
of asking too much or too little, Mertoun stopped his 
mouth, and ended his uncertainty, by promising him a 
recompense beyond what he dared have ventured to ask, 
with an additional gratuity, in case they returned with the 
pleasing intelligence that his son was safe. 

When this great point was settled, Niel Ronaldson, like 
a man of conscience, began to consider earnestly the va- 
rious places where search should be made after the 
young man ; and having undertaken faithfully that the 
inquiry should be prosecuted at all the houses of the gen- 
try, both in this and the neighbouring islands, he added, 
that, “ after all, if his honour would not be angiy, there 
was ane not far off, that, if anybody dared speer her a 
question, and if she liked to answer it, could tell more 
about Maister Mordaunt than anybody else could. — Ye 
will ken wha I mean, Swertha ? Her that was down at 
the haven this morning.” Thus he concluded, addressing 
himself with a mysterious look to the housekeeper, which 
she answered with a nod and a wink. 

“ How mean you ?” said Mertoun ; ‘‘ speak out, short 
and open — whom do you speak of 


58 


THE PIRATE. 


“ It is Norna of the Fitful-head,” said Swertha, “ that 
the ranzelman is thinking about ; for she has gone up to 
'Saint Ringan’s Kirk this morning on business of her own.” 

“ And what can this person know of my son ?” said 
Mertoun ; “ she is, I believe, a wandering madwoman, 
or impostor.” 

“ If she wanders,” said Swertha, “ it is for nae lack 
of means at hame, and that is weel known — plenty of a’ 
thing has she of her ain, forby that the Fowd himsell 
would let her want naething.” 

“ But what is that to my son ?” said Mertoun impa- 
tiently. 

“ I dinna ken — she took unco pleasure in Maister Mor- 
daunt from the time she first saw him, and mony a braw 
thing she gave him at ae time or another, forby the gowd 
chain that hangs about his bonhy craig — folks say it is of 
fairy gold. — I kenna what gold it is, but Bryce Snailsfoot 
says, that the value will mount to an hundred poundsEng- 
lish, and that is nae deaf nuts.” 

“ Go, Ronaldson,” said Mertoun, ‘‘ or else send some 
one, to seek this woman out — ^f you think there be a 
chance of her knowing anything of my son.” 

“ She kens a’ thing that happens in thae islands,” said 
Niel Ronaldson, “ muckle sooner than other folk, and 
that is Heaven’s truth.— But as to going to the kirk, or 
the kirk-yard, to speer after her, there is not a man in 
Zetland will do it, for meed or for money — and that’s 
Heaven’s truth as weel as the other.” 

‘‘ Cowardly, superstitious fools !” said Mertoun. — 
‘‘ but give me my cloak, Swertha. — This woman has been 
at Burgh-Westra — she is related to Troil’s family — she 
may know something of Mordaunt’s absence, and its 
cause — I will seek her myself — She is at the Cross-kirk, 
you say?” 

“ No, not at the Cross-kirk, but at the auld Kirk of 
Saint Ringan’s — its a dowie bit, and far frae being canny ; 
and if your honour,” added Swertha, “ wad walk by my 
rule, I wad wait until she came back, and no trouble her 
when she mav be mair busied wi’ the dead, for ony thincj 


THE PIRATE. 


59 


that we ken, than she is wi’ the living. The like of her 
carena to have other folk’s een on them when they are, 
gude sain us I doing their ain particular turns.” 

Mertoun made no answer, but throwing his cloak loose- 
ly around him, (for the day was misty with passing show- 
ers,) and leaving the decayed mansion of Jarlshof, he 
walked at a pace much faster than was usual with him, 
taking the direction of the ruinous church, which stood, 
as he well knew, within three or four miles of his dwelling. 

The ranzelman and Swertha stood gazing after him in 
silence, until he was fairly out of ear-shot, when, looking 
seriously on each other, and shaking their sagacious heads 
in the ^ame boding degree of vibration, they uttered their 
remarks in the same breath. 

“ Fools are aye fleet and fain,” said Swertha. “ Fey- 
folk run fast,” added the ranzelman 5 ‘‘ and the thing 
that we are born to, we cannot win by. — I have known 
them that tried to stop folk that were fey. — ^You have 
heard of Helen Emberson of Camsey, how she stopped 
all the holes and windows about the house, that her gude- 
man might not see day-light, and rise to the haaf-fishing, 
because she feared foul weather ; and how the boat he 
should have sailed in was lost in the Roost ; and how she 
came back, rejoicing in her gudeman’s safety — but ne’er 
may care, for there she found him drowned in his own 
rnasking-fat, within the wa’s of his ain biggin ; and more- 
over — ” 

But here Swertha reminded the ranzelman that he must 
go down to the haven to get off the fishing-boats ; “ for 
both that my heart is sair for the bonny lad, and that I 
am fear’d he cast up of his ain accord before you are at 
sea ; and, as I have often told ye, my master may lead<^ 
but he winna drive ; and if ye do not his bidding, and get 
out to sea, the never a bodle of boat-hire will ye see.” 

« Weel, weel, good dame,” said the ranzelman, “ we 
will launch as fast as we can ; and by good luck, neither 
Clawson’s boat, nor Peter Grot’s, is out to the haaf this 
morning, for a rabbit ran across the path as they were go- 

15 


60 


THE PIRATE. 


irjg on board, and they came back like wise men, kenning 
they wad be called to other wark this day. And a mar- 
vel it is to think, Swertha, how few real judicious men 
are left in this land. There is our great Udaller is weel 
eneugh when he is fresh, but he makes ower mony voyages 
in his ship and his yawl to be lang sae ; and now, they 
say, his daughter. Mistress Minna, is sair out of sorts. — 
Then there is Norna kens muckle mair than other folk, 
but wise woman ye cannot call her. — Our tacksman here, 
Maister Mertoun, his wit is sprung in the bowsprit, I doubt 
— his son is a daft gowk 5 and I ken few of consequence 
hereabouts — excepting always myself, and may be you, 
Swertha — but what may, in some sense or other, be called 
fules.” 

“ That may be, Niel Ronaldson,” said the dame * 
“ but if you do not hasten the faster to the shore you 
will lose tide ; and, as I said to my master some short time 
syne, wha will be the fule then 


THE PIRATE. 


6 ] 


CHAPTER V. 


1 do love these ancient ruins — 

We never tread upon them but we set 
Our foot upon some reverend history j 
And, questionless, here, in this open court, 

(Which now lies naked to the injuries 
Of stormy weather,) some men lie interred, 

Loved the Church so well, and gave so largely tc % 

They thought it should have canopied their bones 
Till dooms-day ; but all things have their end — 

Churches and cities, which have diseases like to men 
Must have like death which we have. 

Duchess of Malfy. 

The ruinous church of Saint Ninian had, in its time?' 
enjoyed great celebrity 5 for that mighty system of Roman 
superstition, which spread its roots over all Europe, had not 
failed to extend them even to this remote archipelago, 
and Zetland had, in the Catholic times, her saints, her 
shrines, and her reliques, which, though little known else- 
where, attracted the homage, and commanded the observ- 
ance, of the simple inhabitants of Thule. Their devotion 
to this church of Saint Ninian, or, as he was provincially 
termed. Saint Ringan, situated, as the edifice was, close 
to the sea-beach, and serving, in many points, as a land- 
mark to their boats, was particular/y obstinate, and was 
connected with so much superstitious ceremonfal and 
credulity, that the reformed clergy thought it best, by an 
order of the Church Courts, to prohibit all spiritual ser- 
vice within its walls, as tending to foster the rooted faith 
of the simple and rude people around in saint-worship, 
and other erroneous doctrines of the Romish Church 
After the church of Saint Ninian had been thus de- 
nounced as a seat of idolatry, and desecrated of course, 
the public worship was transferred to another church ; 

VOL. II. 


6.2 


TUE riRATE. 


and the roof, with its lead and its rafters, having been 
stripped from the little rude old Gothic building, it was 
left in the wilderness to the mercy of the elements. The 
fury of the uncontrolled winds, which howled along an 
exposed space, resembling that which we have described 
at Jarlshof, very soon choked up nave and aisle, and, on 
the north-wes; side, which was chiefly exposed to the 
wind, hid the outside walls more than half way up with 
mounds of drifted sand, over which the gable-ends of the 
building, with the little belfrey, which was built above its 
eastern angle, arose in ragged and shattered nakedness 
of ruin. 

Yet, deserted as it was, the Kirk of Saint Ringan still 
retained some semblance of the ancient homage formerly 
rendered there. The rude and ignorant fishermen of 
Dunrossness observed a practice, of which they them- 
selves had wellnigh forgotten the origin, and from which 
the Protestant Clergy in vain endeavoured to deter them. 
When their boats were in extreme peril, it was common 
amongst them to propose to vow an awmous, as they term- 
ed it, that is, an alms, to Saint Ringan ; and when the 
danger was over, they never failed to absolve themselves 
of their vow, by coming singly and secretly to the old 
church, and putting off their shoes and stockings at the 
entrance of the church-yard, walking thrice around the 
ruins, observing that they did so in the course of the sun. 
When the circuit was accomplished for the third time, the 
votary dropped his offering, usually a small silver coin, 
through the mullions of a lanceolated window, which 
opened into a side aisle, and then retired, avoiding care- 
fully to look behind him till he was beyond the precincts 
which had once been hallowed ground ; for it was believ- 
ed that the skeleton of the saint received the offering in 
his bony hand, and showed his ghastly death’s-head at 
the window into which it was thrown. 

Indeed, the scene was rendered more appalling to weak 
and ignorant minds, because the same stormy and eddy- 
ing winds, which, on the one side of the church, threat- 
ened to bury the ruins with sand, and had, in fact, heaped 


THE PIRATE. 


63 


It up in huge quantities, so as almost to hide the side-wall 
with its buttresses, seemed in other places bent on uncover- 
ing the graves of those who had been laid to their long rest 
on the south-eastern quarter ; and, after an unusually hard 
gale, the coffins, and sometimes the very corpses, of those 
who had been interred without the usual cerements, w^ere 
discovered, in a ghastly manner, to the eyes of the living. 

It was to this desolated place of worship that the elder 
Mertoun now proceeded, though without any of those re- 
ligious or superstitious purposes with which the church of 
Saint Ringan was usually approached. He was totally 
without the superstitious fears of the country — nay, from 
the sequestered and sullen manner in which he lived, with- 
drawing himself from human society even when aGsembled 
for worship, it was the general opinion that he erred on 
the more fatal side, and believed rather too little than too 
much of that which the Church receives and enjoins to 
Christians. 

As he entered the little bay, on the shore, and almost 
on the beach of which the ruins are situated, he could not 
help pausing for an instant, and becoming sensible that 
the scene, as calculated to operate on human feelings, had 
been selected with much judgment as the site of a re- 
ligious house. In front lay the sea, into which two head- 
lands, which formed the extremities of the bay, projected 
their gigantic causeways of dark and sable rocks, on the 
ledges of which the gulls, scouries, and other sea-fowl, 
appeared like flakes of snow ; while upon the lower ranges 
of the cliff, stood whole lines of cormorants, drawn up 
alongside of each other, like soldiers in their battle array, 
and other living thing was there none to see. The sea, 
although not in a tempestuous state, was disturbed enough 
to rush on these capes with a sound like distant thunder, 
and the billows, which rose in sheets of foam half way up 
these sable rocks, formed a contrast of colouring equally 
striking and awful. 

Betwixt the extremities, or capes, of these projecting 
headlands, there rolled, on the day when Mertoun visited 
the scene, a deep and dense aggregation of clouds, through 
which n:: human eye could penetrate, and which, bound- 


64 


THE PIRATE. 


ing the vision, and excluding all view of the distant ocean, 
rendered it no unapt representation of the sea in the vis- 
ion of Mirza, whose extent was concealed by vapours, 
auG clouds, and storms. The ground rising steeply from 
the sea-beach, permitting no view into the interior of the 
country, appeared a scene of irretrievable barrenness, 
where scrubby and stunted heath, intermixed with the 
long bent, or coarse grass, which first covers sandy soils, 
were the only vegetables that could be seen. Upon a 
natural elevation, which rose above the beach in the very 
bottom of the bay, and receded a little from the sea, so 
as to be without reach of the waves, arose the half-buried 
ruin which we have already described, surrounded by a 
was:ed, half-ruinous, and mouldering wall, which, breach- 
ed in several places, served still to divide the precincts of 
the cemetery. The mariners who were driven by acci- 
dent into this solitary bay, pretended that the chureh was 
occasionally observed to be full of lights, and, from that 
circumstance, were used to prophesy shipwrecks and 
deaths by sea. 

As Mertoun approached near to the chapel, he adopted, 
insensibly, and perhaps without much premeditation, meas- 
ures to avoid being himself seen until he came close under 
the walls of the burial-ground, which he approached, as 
it chanced, on that side where the sand was blowing from 
the graves, in the manner we have described. 

Here, looking through one of the gaps in the wall which 
time had made, he beheld the person whom he sought, 
occupied in a manner which assorted well with the ideas 
popularly entertained of her character, but which was 
otherwise sufficiently extraordinary. 

She was employed beside a rude monument, on one 
side of which was represented the rough outline of a cav- 
alier, or knight, on horseback, while, on the other, ap- 
peared a shield, with the armorial bearings so defaced as 
not to be intelligible ; which escutcheon was suspended 
by onr angle, contrary to the modern custom which 
usually places them straight and upright. At the foot ot 
tliis pillar was believed to repose, as Mertoun had form- 


THE PIRATE 


65 


erly heard, the bones of Ribolt Tfoil, one of the remote 
ancestors of Magnus, and a man renowned for deeds of 
valorous emprize in the fifteenth century. F rom the grave 
of this warrior Norna of the Fitful-head seemed busied in 
shovelling the sand, an easy task where it was so light and 
loose ; so that it seemed plain that she would shortly com- 
plete what- the rude winds had begun, and make bare the 
bones which lay there interred. As she laboured she 
muttered her magic song ; for without the Runic rhyme 
no form of northern superstition was ever performed. 
We have perhaps preserved too many examples of these 
incantations ; but we cannot help attempting to translate 
that which follows ; — 

Champion, famed for warlike toil, 

Art thou silent, Ribolt Troil 1 
Sand, and dust, and pebbly stones, 

Are leaving bare thy giant bones. 

Who dared touch the wild-bear’s skin 
Ye slumber’d on, while life was in ? — 

A woman now, or babe, may come 
And cast the covering from thy tomb. 

“ Yet be not wrathful. Chief, nor blight 
Mine eyes or ears with sound or sight ! 

I come not, with unhallow’d tread, 

To wake tire slumbers of the dead, 

Or lay thy giant reliques bare ; 

But what I seek thou well can’s! spare. 

Be it to my hand allow’d 
To shear a merk’s weight from thy shroud t 
Yet leave thee sheeted lead enough 
To shield thy bones from weather rough. 

See, 1 draw my magic knife— 

Never while thou wert in life , 

Laid’st thou still for sloth or fear, 

When point and edge were glittering new ; 

See, the cerements now I sever — 

Waken now, or sleep for ever I 

riiou wilt not wake ? the deed is done !— - 

The prize I sought is fairly won. 

VOL. II 




THE PIRATE. 


** Thanks, Ribolt, thanks,— for this the sea 
Shall smooth its ruffled crest for thee,-^ 

And while afar its billows foam. 

Subside to peace near Ribolt’s tomb. 

Thanks, Ribolt, thanks— for this the might 
Of wild winds raging at their height. 

When to thy place of slumber nigh. 

Shall soften to a lullaby. 

She, the dame of doubt and dread, 

Norna of the Fitful-head, 

Mighty in her own despite — 

Miserable in her might ; 

In despair and frenzy great, — 

In her greatness desolate ; 

Wisest, wickedest who lives. 

Well can keep the w'ord she gives.” 

While Norna chanted the first part of this rhyme, she 
completed the task of laying bare a part of the leaden 
coffin of the ancient warrior, and severed from it, witli 
much caution and apparent awe, a portion of the metal. 
She then reverentially threw back the sand upon the coffin; 
and by the time she had finished her song, no trace re- 
mained that the secrets of the sepulchre had been violated. 

Mertoun remained gazing on her from behind the 
church-yard wall during the whole ceremony, not from 
any impression of veneration for her or her employment, 
but because he conceived that to interrupt a madwoman 
in her act of madness, was not the best way to obtain from 
her such intelligence as she might have to impart. Mean- 
while he had full time to consider her figure, although 
her face was obscured by her dishevelled hair, and by 
the hood of her dark mantle, which permitted no more 
to be visible than a Druidess would probably have exhib- 
ited at the celebration of her mystical rites. Mertoun had 
often heard of Norna before ; nay, it is most probable 
that he might have seen her repeatedly, for she had been in 
the vicinity of Jarlshof more than once since his residence 
there. But the absurd stories which were in circulation 
’especting her, prevented his paying any attention to a 
rson whom he regarded as either an impostor, or a 


THE PIRATE. 


67 


madwoman, or a compound of both. Yet, now that his 
attention was, by circumstances, involuntarily fixed upon 
her person and deportment, he could not help acknowl- 
edging to himself that she was either a complete enthu- 
siast, or rehearsed her part so admirably, that no Pyth- 
oness of ancient times could have excelled her. The 
dignity and solemnity of her gesture, — the sonorous, yet 
impressive tone of voice with which she addressed the 
departed spirit whose mortal reliques she ventured to dis- 
turb, were such as failed not to make an impression upon 
him, careless and indifferent as he generally appeared to 
all that went on around him. But no sooner was her 
singular occupation terminated, than, entering the church- 
yard with some difficulty, by clambering over the dis- 
jointed ruins of the wall, he made Norna aware of Ins 
presence. Far from starting, or expressing the least sui- 
prise at his appearance in a place so solitary, she said, in 
a tone that seemed to intimate that he had been expect- 
ed, “ So, — ^)'ou have sought me at last ?” 

“ And found you,” replied Mertoun, judging he would 
best introduce the inquiries he had to make, by assuming 
a tone which corresponded to her own. 

Yes I” she replied, “ found me you have, and in the 
place where all men must meet — amid the tabernacles of 
the dead.” 

“ Here we must, indeed, meet at last,” replied Mei • 
toun, glancing his eyes on the desolate scene around, 
where head-stones, half covered in sand, and others, from 
which the same wind had stripped the soil on which they 
rested, covered with inscriptions, and sculptured with the 
emblems of mortality, were the most conspicuous objects, 
— “ here, as in the house of death, all men must meet at 
length ; and happy those that come soonest to the quiet 
haven.” 

He that dares desire this haven,” said Norna, “ must 
have steered a steady course in the voyage of life. 1 
dare not hope for such quiet harbour. Barest thou ex- 
pect it ? or has the course thou hast kept deserved it 


58 


THE PIRATE. 


“ It matters not to my present purpose,” replied Mei- 
toun ; “ I have to ask you what tidings you know of iny 
son Mordaunt Mertoun ?” 

“ A father,” replied the sibyl, asks of a stranger what 
tidings she has of his son ! How should I know aught oi 
him ? the cormorant says not to the mallard, where is my 
brood ?” 

“ Lay aside this useless affectation of mystery,” said 
Mertoun ; “ with the vulgar and ignorant it has its effect, 
but upon me it is thrown away. The people of Jarlshof 
have told me that you do know, or may know, something 
of Mordaunt Mertoun, who has not returned home after 
the festival of Saint John’s, held in the house of your 
relative, Magnus Troil. Give me such information, if 
indeed ye have it to give ; and it shall be recompensed, 
if the means of recompense are in my power.” 

“ The wide round of earth,” replied Norna, “ holds 
nothing that I would call a recompense for the slightest 
word that I throw away upon a living ear. But for thy 
son, if thou would’st see him in life, repair to the ap- 
proaching Fair of Kirkwall, in Orkney.” 

“ And wherefore thither ?” said Mertoun ; “ I know 
he had no purpose in that direction.” 

“We drive on the stream of fate,” answered Norna, 
“ without oar or rudder. You had no purpose this morn- 
ing of visiting the Kirk of Saint Ringan, yet you are here ; 
— you had no purpose but a minute hence of being at 
Kirkwall, and yet you will go thither.” 

“ Not unless the cause is more distinctly explained to 
me. I am no believer, dame, in those who assert your 
supernatural powers.” 

“ You shall believe in them ere we part,” said Norna. 
“ As yet you know but little of me, nor shall you know 
more. But I know enough of you, and could convince 
you with one word that I do so.” 

“ Convince me then,” said Mertoun ; “ for unless I 
am so convin:3d, there is little chance of my following 
your counsel ' 


THE PIRATE. 


69 


“ Mark, then,” said Norna, “ what I have to say on 
j^our son’s score, else what I shall say to you on your own 
will banish every other thought from your memory. You 
shall go to the approaching Fair at Kirkwall ; and, on the 
fifth day of the Fair, you shall walk, at the hour of noon, 
m the outer aisle of the Cathedral of Saint Magnus, and 
there you shall meet a person who will give you tidings 
of your son.” 

“ You must speak more distinctly, dame,” returned 
Mertoun, scornfully, “ if you hope that I should follow 
your counsel. I have been fooled in my lime by women, 
but never so grossly as you seem willing to gull me.” 

“ Hearken, then !” said the old woman. “ The word 
which I speak shall touch the nearest secret of thy life, 
and thrill thee through nerve and bone.” 

So saying, she whispered a word into Mertoun’s ear, 
the effect of which seemed almost magical. He remained 
fixed and motionless with surprise, as, waving her arm 
slowly aloft, with an air of superiority and triumph, Norna 
glided from him, turned round a corner of the ruins, and 
was soon out of sight. 

Mertoun offered not to follow, or to trace her. “ We 
fly from our fate in vain !” he said, as he began to recover 
himself; and turning, he left behind him the desolate ruins 
with their cemetery. As he looked back from the very 
last point at which the church was visible, he saw the 
figure of Norna, muffled in her mantle, standing on the 
very summit of the ruined tower, and stretching out in 
the sea-breeze something which resembled a white pen- 
non, or flag. A feeling of horror, similar )o that excited 
by her last words, again thrilled through his bosom, and 
he hastened onwards with unwonted speed, until he had 
left the church of Saint Ninian, with its bay of sand, far 
behind him. 

Upon his arrival at Jarlshof, the alteration in his coun- 
tenance was so great, that Swertha conjectured he was 
about to fall into one of those fits of deep melancholy^ 
which she termed his dark hour. 


70 


THE PIRATE. 


“ And what better could be expected,” thought Swertha, 
‘ when he must needs go visit Norna of the Fitful-head, 
when she was in the haunted Kirk of Saint Ringan’s ?” 

But without testifying any other symptoms of an alien- 
ated mind, than that of deep and sullen dejection, her 
master acquainted her with his intention to go to the Fair 
of Kirkwall, — a thing so contrary to his usual habits, that 
the housekeeper well nigh refused to credit her ears. 
Shortly after he heard, with apparent indifference, the ac- 
counts returned by the different persons who had been 
sent out in quest of Mordaunt, by sea and land, wdio all 
of them returned without any tidings. The equanimity 
with which Mertoun heard the report of their bad suc- 
cess, convinced Swertha still more firmly, that in his in- 
terview with Norna, that issue had been predicted to him 
by the sibyl whom he had consulted. 

The township were yet more surprised, when their 
tacksman, Mr. Mertoun, as if on some sudden resolution, 
made preparations to visit Kirkwall during the Fair, al- 
though he had hitherto avoided sedulously all such places 
of public resort. Swertha puzzled herself a good deal 
without being able to penerate this mystery ; and vexed 
herself still more concerning the fate of her young mas- 
ter. But her concern was much softened by the deposit 
of a sum of money, seeming, however moderate in itself, 
a treasure in her eyes, which her master put into her 
hands, acquainting her, at the same time, that he had 
taken his passage for Kirkwall, in a small bark belonging 
to the proprietor of the island of Mousa. 


THE riRATE. 


71 


CHAPTER VI. 

Nae langer she wept, — her tears were a' spent, — 

Despair it was come, and she thought it content ; 

She thought it content, but her cheek it grew pale. 

And she droop'd, like a lilv broke down bv the hail. 

CmtinuaiMU oj Auld Robin Gray 8 

The condition of Minna much resembled that of the 
village heroine in Lady Anne Lindsay’s beautiful ballad. 
Her natural firmness of mind prevented her from sinking 
under the pressure of the horrible secret, which haunted 
her while awake, and was yet more tormenting, during her 
broken and hurried slumbers. There is no grief so dread- 
ful as that which we dare not communicate, and in which 
we can neither ask nor desire sympathy ; and when to 
this is added the burden of a guilty mystery to an inno- 
cent bosom, there is little wonder that Minna’s health 
should have sunk under the burden. 

To the friends around, her habits and manners, nay,, 
her temper, seemed altered to such an extraordinary de- 
gree, that it is no wonder that some should have ascribed 
the change to witchcraft, and some to incipient madness. 
She became unable to bear the solitude in which she 
formerly delighted to spend her time; yet when she hur- 
ried into society, it was without either joining in, or at- 
tending to, what passed. Generally she appeared wrap- 
ped in sad, and even sullen abstraction, until her attention 
was suddenly roused by some casual mention of the name 
of Cleveland, or of Mordaunt Mertoun, at which she start- 
ed, with the horror of one who sees the lighted match 
applied to a charged mine, and expects to be instantly 
involved in the effects of the explosion. And when she 
observed that the discovery was not yet made, it was so 
far from being a consolation, that she almost wished tlie 
worst were known, rather than endure the continued ago 
nies of suspense. 


TUE PIRATE. 




Her conduct towards her sister was so variable, yet 
aniforinly so painful to the kind-hearted Brenda, that it 
seemed to all around, one of the strongest features of her 
malady. Sometimes Minna was impelled to seek her 
sister’s company, as if by the consciousness that they were 
common sufferers by a misfortune of which she herself 
alone could grasp the extent ; and then suddenly the feel- 
ing of the injury which Brenda had received through the 
supposed agency of Cleveland, made her unable to bear 
her presence, and still less to endure the consolation which 
lier sister, mistaking the nature of her malady, vainly en- 
deavoured to administer. Frequently, also, did it happen, 
that, while Brenda was imploring her sister to take com- 
fort, she incautiously touched upon some subject which 
thrilled to- the very centre of her soul ; so that, unable to 
conceal her agony, Minna would rush hastily from the 
apartment. All these different moods, though they too 
much resembled, to one who knew not their real source, 
the caprices of unkind estrangement, Brenda endured 
with such prevailing and unruffled gentleness of dispo- 
sition, that Minna was frequently moved to shed floods of 
tears upon her neck ; and, perhaps, the moments in which 
she did so, though embittered by the recollection that her 
fatal secret concerned the destruction of Brenda’s hap- 
piness as well as her own, were still, softened as they 
were by sisterly affection, the most endurable moments 
of this most miserable period of her life. 

The effects of the alternations of moping melancholy, 
fearful agitation, and bursts of nervous feeling, were soon 
\dsible on the poor young woman’s face and person. She 
became pale and emaciated ; her eye lost the steady quiet 
look of happiness and innocence, and was alternately dim 
and wild, as she was acted upon by a general feeling of 
her own distressful condition, or by some quicker and 
more poignant sense of agony. Her very features seemed 
to change, and become sharp and eager, and her voice, 
which, in its ordinary tones, was low and placid, now 
sometimes sunk in indistinct mutterings, and sometimes 
was raised beyond the natural key, in hasty and abrupt 


THE PIRATE. 


73 


exclamations. When in company with others, she was 
sullenly silent, and when she ventured into solitude, was 
observed (for it was now thought very proper to watch her 
on such occasions) to speak much to herself. 

The pharmacy of the islands was in vain resorted to 
by Minna’s anxious father. Sages of both sexes, who 
knew the virtues of every herb which drinks the dew, and 
augmented those virtues by words of might, used while 
they prepared and applied the medicines, were attended 
with no benefit ; and Magnus, in the utmost anxiety, was 
at last induced to have recourse to the advice of his kins- 
woman, Norna of the Fitful-head, although, owing to cir- 
cumstances, noticed in the course of the story, there was 
at this time some estrangement between them. His first 
application was in vain. Norna was then at her usual 
place of residence, upon the sea-coast, near the head- 
land from which she usually took her designation ; but, 
although Erick Scambester himself brought the message, 
she refused positively to see him, or to return any answer. 

Magnus was angry at the slight put upon his messenger 
and message, but his anxiety on Minna’s account, as well 
as the respect which he had for Norna’s real misfortunes 
and imputed w/sdom and power, prevented him from in- 
dulging, on the present occasion, his usual irritability of 
disposition. On the contrary, he determined to make an 
application to his kinswoman in his own person. He kept 
his purpose, however, to himself, and only desired his 
daughters to be in readiness to attend him upon a visit to 
a relation whom he had not seen for some time, and di- 
rected them, at the same time, to carry some provisions 
along with them, as the journey was distant, ana they 
might perhaps find their friend unprovided. 

Unaccustomed to ask explanations of his pleasure, and 
hoping that exercise and the amusement of such an ex- 
cursion might be of service to her sister, BrCxida, upon 
whom all household and family charges now devolved, 
caused the necessary preparations to be made for the ex- 
pedition ; and, on the next morning, they were engaged 

VOL. II. 


74 


THE PIRATE. 


in tracing the long and tedious course of beach and of 
moorland, which, only varied by occasional patches of oats 
and barley, where a little ground had been selected for 
cultivation, divided Burgh-Westra from the north-western 
extremity of the Mainland, (as the principal island is call- 
ed,) which, terminates in the cape called Fitful-head, as 
the south-western point ends in the cape of Sumburgh. 

On they went, through wild and over wold, the Udal- 
ler bestriding a strong, square-made, well-barrelled pal- 
frey, of Norwegian breed, somewhat taller, and yet as 
stout, as the ordinary ponies of the country ; while Minna 
and Brenda, famed, amongst other accomplishments, for 
their horsemanship, rode' two of those hardy animals, 
which, bred and reared with more pains than is usually 
bestowed, showed, both by the neatness of their form and 
their activity, that the race, so much and so carelessly 
neglected, is capable of being improved into beauty, with- 
out losing any thing of its spirit or vigour. They were 
attended by two servants on horseback, and two on foot, 
secure that the last circumstance would be no delay to 
their journey, because a great part of the way was so 
rugged, or so marshy, that the horses could only move at 
a foot pace ; and that, whenever they met with any con- 
siderable tract of hard and even ground, they had only 
to borrow from the nearest herd of ponies the use of a 
couple for the accommodation of these pedestrians. 

The journey was a melancholy one, and little conver- 
sation passed, except when the Udaller, pressed by impa- 
tience and vexation, urged his pony to a quick pace, ana 
again, recollecting Minna’s weak state of health, slacken- 
ed to a walk, and reiterated inquiries how she felt herself, 
and whether the fatigue was not too much for her. At 
noon the party halted and partook of some refreshment, 
for which they had m.ade ample provision, beside a pleas- 
ant spring, the pureness of whose waters, however, did 
not suit the Udaller’s palate, until qualified by a kberal 
addition of right Nantz. After he had a second, yea 
•md a third time, filled a large silver travelling-cup, em- 
nossed with a German Cupid smoking a pipe, and a Ger- 


THE PIRATE. 


76 


man Bacchus emptying his flask down the throat of a bear 
he began to become more talkative than vexation had 
permitted him to be during the early part of their journey, 
and thus addressed his daughters : — 

“ Well, children, we are within a league or two of 
Norna’s dwelling, and we shall soon see how the old spell- 
mutterer will receive us.” 

Minna interrupted her father with a faint exclamation, 
while Brenda, surprised to a great degree, exclaimed, 
“ Is it then to Norna that we are to make this visit ? — 
Heaven forbid !” 

“ And wherefore should Heaven forbid ?” said the 
Udaller, knitting his brows ; wherefore, I would gladly 
know, should Heaven forbid me to visit my kinswoman, 
whose skill may be of use to your sister, if any woman 
in Zetland, or man either, can be of service to her ? — 
You are a fool, Brenda, — ^your sister has more sense. — 
Cheer up, Minna ! — thou wert ever wont to like her songs 
and stories, and used to hang about her neck, when little 
Brenda cried and ran from her like a Spanish merchant- 
man from a Dutch caper.”* 

“ I wish she may not frighten me as much to-day, fa- 
ther,” replied Brenda, desirous of indulging Minna in her 
taciturnity, and at the same time to amuse her father by 
sustaining the conversation ; “ I have heard so much of 
her dwelling, that I am rather alarmed at the thought of 
going there uninvited.” 

“ Thou art a fool,” said Magnus, “ to think that a visit 
from her kinsfolks can ever come amiss to a kind, hearty 
Hialtland heart, like my cousin Noma’s. — And, now 1 
think on’t, I will be sworn that is the reason why she 
would not receive Erick Scambester ! — It is many a long 
day since I have seen her chimney smoke, and I have 
never carried you thither — She hath indeed some right to 
call me unkind. But I will tell her the truth — and that is, 
that though such be the fashion, I do not think it is fair or 


* A li/rlit-armed vessel of the seventeenth century, adapted for privateering 
and much used by the Dutch. 


76 


THE PIRATE. 


honest to eat up the substance of lone women-folks, as 
vve do that of our brother Udallers, when we roll about 
from house to house in the winter season, until we gather 
like a snow-ball, and eat up all wherever we come.’^ 

“ There is no fear of our putting Norna to any distress 
iust now,” replied Brenda, “ for 1 have ample provision 
of every thing that we can possibly need — fish, and bacon, 
and salted mutton, and dried geese — more than we could 
eat in a week, besides enough of liquor for you, father.” 

Right, right, my girl !” said the Udaller ; ‘‘ a well- 
found ship makes a merry voyage — so we shall only want 
the kindness of Norna’s roof, and a little bedding for you ; 
for, as to myself, my sea-cloak, and honest dry boards of 
Norway deal, suit me better than your eider-down cush- 
ions and mattresses. So that Norna will have the pleas- 
ure of seeing us without having a stiver’s worth of trouble.” 

I wish she may think it a pleasure, sir,” replied 
Brenda. 

“ Why, what does the girl mean, in the name of the 
Martyr ?” replied Magnus Troil ; ‘‘ dost thou think my 
kinswomaufis a heathen, who will not rejoice to see her 
own flesh and blood ? — I would I were as sure of a good 
year’s fishing ! — No, no ! I only fear we may find her 
from home at present, for she is often a wanderer, and all 
with thinking overmuch on what can never be helped.” 

Minna sighed deeply as her father spoke, and the Udal- 
ler went on — 

“ Dost thou sigh at that, my girl ? — why, ’tis the fault 
of half the world — let it never be thine own, Minna.” 

Another suppressed sigh intimated that the caution 
came too late. 

“ I believe you are afraid of my cousin as well as 
Brenda is,” said the Udaller, gazing on her pale counte- 
nance ; “ if so, speak the word, and we will return back 
again as if we had the wind on our quarter, and were 
running fifteen knots by the line.” 

‘‘ Do, for Heaven’s sake, sister, let us return !” said 
Brenda, imploringl ' ; you know — vou remember— 


THE PIRATE. 


77 


you must be well aware that Norna can do nought to help 
you.” 

“ It is but too true,” said Minna, in a subdued voice , 
“ but I know not — she may answer a question — a question 
that only the miserable dare ask of the miserable.” 

“ Nay, my kinswoman is no miser,” answered the 
Udaller, who only heard the beginning of the word ; a 
good income she has, both in Orkney and here, and many* 
a fair lispund of butter is paid to her. But the poor have 
the best share of it, and shame fall the Zetlander who 
begrudges them ; the rest she spends, I wot not how, in 
her journeys through the islands. But you will laugh to 
see her house, and Nick Strumpfer, whom she calls Pa- 
colet — many folks think Nick is the devil ; but he is flesh 
and blood, like any of us — his father lived in GraBmsay. 
— -I shall be glad to see Nick again.” 

While the Udaller thus ran on, Brenda, who, in recom- 
pense for a less portion of imagination than her sister, 
was gifted with sound common sense, was debating with 
herself the probable effect of this visit on her sister’s 
health. She came finally to the resolution of speaking 
with her father aside, upon the first occasion which their 
iourney should afford. To him she determined to com- 
municate the whole particulars of their nocturnal inter- 
view with Norna, — to which, among other agitating cau- 
ses, she attributed the depression of Minna’s spirits, — and 
then make himself the judge whether he ought to persist 
in his visit to a person so singular, and expose his daugh- 
ter to all the shock which her nerves might possibly re- 
ceive from the interview. 

Just as she had arrived at this conclusion, her father, 
dashing the crumbs from his laced waistcoat with one hand, 
and receiving with the other a fourth cup of brandy and 
water, drank devoutly to the success of their voyage, and 
ordered all to be in readiness to set forward. Whilst tliey 
were saddling their ponies, Brenda, with some difficulty 
contrived to make her father understand she wished to 
speak with him in private — no small surprise to the honest 

VOL. [I 


78 


THE PIRATE. 


Udaller, who, though secret as the grave in the very few 
things where he considered secrecy as of importance was 
so far from practising mystery in general, that his most 
important affairs were o%n discussed by him openly in 
presence of his whole family, servants included. 

But far greater was his astonishment, when, remaining 
purposely with his daughter Brenda, a little in the wake, 
as he termed it, of the other riders, he heard the whole 
account of Norna’s visit to Burgh-Westra, and of the 
communication with which she had then astounded his 
daughters. For a long time he could utter nothing but 
interjections, and ended with a thousand curses on his 
kinswoman’s folly in telling his daughters such a history 
of horror. 

“ I have often heard,” said the Udaller, ‘‘ that she was 
quite mad, with all her wisdom, and all her knowledge of 
the seasons ; and, by the bones of my namesake, the 
Martyr, I begin now to believe it most assuredly. I know 
no more how to steer than if I had lost my compass. 
Had I known this before we set out, I think I had re- 
mained at home ; but now that we have come so far, and 
that Norna expects us ” 

“ Expects us, father !” said Brenda ; “ how can that 
be possible ?” 

“ Why, that I know not — but she that can tell how the 
wind is to blow, can tell which way w^e are designing to 
ride. She must not be provoked ; — perhaps she has done 
my family this ill for the words I had with her about that 
lad Mordaunt Mertoun, and if so, she can undo it again ; 
« — and so she shall, or I will know the cause wherefore. 
But I will try fair words first.” 

Finding it thus settled that they were to go forward, 
Brenda endeavoured next to learn from her father whether 
Norna’s tale was founded in reality. He shook his head, 
groaned bitterly, and, in a few words, acknowledged that 
the whole, so far as concerned her intrigue with a stranger, 
and her father’s death, of which she became the acci- 
dental and most innocent cauB3, was a matter of sad and 


THE PIRATE. 


79 


indisputable truth. “ For her infant,” he said, “ he could 
never, by any means, learn what became of it.” 

“ Her infant !” exclaimed Brenda ; “ she spoke not 
a word of her infant !” 

“ Then I wish my tongue had been blistered,” said the 
Udaller, “ when I told you of it. — I see that, young and 
old, a man has no better chance of keeping a secret from 
you women, than an eel to keep himself in his hold when 
he is sniggled with a loop of horse-hair — sooner or later 
the fisher teazes him out of his hole, when he has once 
the noose round his neck.” 

“ But the infant, my father ?” said Brenda, still insist- 
ing on the particulars of this extraordinary story, “ what 
became of it ?” 

“ Carried off, I fancy, by the blackguard Vaughan,” 
answered the Udaller, with a gruff accent, which plainly 
betokened how weary he was of the subject. 

“ By Vaughan ?” said Brenda, ‘‘ the lover of poor 
Norna, doubtless ! — what sort of a man was he, father ?” 

Why, much like other men, I fancy,” answered the 
Udaller ; ‘‘ I never saw him in my life. — He kept com- 
pany with the Scottish families at Kirkwall ; and I with 
the good old Norse folk — Ah ! if Norna had dwelt 
always amongst her own kin, and not kept company with 
her Scottish acquaintance, she would have known nothing 
of Vaughan, and things might have been otherwise — But 
then I should have known nothing of your blessed moth- 
er, Brenda — and that,” he said, his large blue eyes shin- 
ing with a tear, “ would have saved me a short joy and a 
long sorrow.” 

“ Norna could but ill have supplied my mother’s j^lace 
to you, father, as a companion and a friend — that is, 
judging from all I have heard,” said Brenda, with some 
hesitation. But Magnus, softened by recollections of hia 
beloved wife, answered her with more indulgence than 
she expected. 

“ I would have been content,” he said, ‘‘ to have wed- 
ded Norna at that time. It would have been the solder- 
ing of an old quarrel — the healing of an old sore. All 


80 


THE PIRATE. 


our blood relations wished it, and, situated as I was, es' 
pecialiy not having seen your blessed motner, I had little 
will to oppose their counsels. You must not judge of 
Norna or of me by such an appearance as we now pre- 
sent to you — She. was young and beautiful, and I game- 
some as a Highland buck, and little caring what haven I 
made for, having, as I thought, more than one under my 
lee. But Norna preferred this man Vaughan, and, as I 
told you before, it was, perhaps, the best kindness she 
could have done to me.” 

“ Ah, poor kinswoman !” said Brenda. “ But believe 
you, father, in the high powers which she claims — in the 
mysterious vision of the dwarf — in the ” 

She was interrupted in these questions by Magnus, to 
whom they were obviously displeasing. 

“ I believe, Brenda,” he said, “ according to the beliel 
of my forefathers — I pretend not to be a wiser man than 
they were in their time, — and they all believed that, in 
cases of great worldly distress. Providence opened the 
eyes of the mind, and afforded the sufferers a vision of 
futurity. It was but a trimming of the boat, with rever- 
ence,” — here he touched his hat reverentially ; “ and, 
after all the shifting of ballast, poor Norna is as heavily 
loaded in the bows as ever was an Orkneyman’s yawl at 
the dog-fishing — she has more than affliction enough on 
board to balance whatever gifts she may have had in the 
midst of her calamity. They are as painful to her, poor 
soul, as a crown of thorns would be to her brow’S, though 
it were the badge of the empire of Denmark. And do 
not you, Brenda, seek to be wiser than your fathers. 
Your sister Minna, before she was so ill, had as much 
reverence for whatever was produced in Norse, as if it 
had been in the Pope’s bull, which is all written in pure 
Latin.” 

“ Poor Norna !” repeated Brenda ; “ and her child — • 
was it never recovered ?” 

“ What do I know of her child,” said the Udaller, 
more gruffly than before, “ except that she was very ill, 
both before and after the birth, thoue:h we kept her as 


THE PIRATE. 


81 


merry as we could with pipe and harp, and so forth — the 
child had come. before its time into this bustling world, so 
It is likely it has been long dead. — But you know nothing 
of all these matters, Brenda ; so get along for a foolish 
girl, and ask no more questions about what it does not 
become you to inquire into.” 

So saying, the tJdallergave his sturdy little palfrey the 
spur, and cantering forward over rough and smooth, while 
the pony’s accuracy and firmness of step put all diffi- 
culties of the path at secure defiance, he placed himself 
soon by the side of the melancholy Minna, and permitted 
her sister to have no farther share in his conversation than- 
as it was addressed to them jointly. She could but comfort 
herself with the hope, that, as Minna’s disease appeared 
to have its seat in the imagination, the remedies recom- 
mended by Norna might have some chance of being ef- 
fectual, since, in all probability, they would be addressed 
to the same faculty. 

Their way had hitherto held chiefly over moss and 
moor, varied occasionally by the necessity of making a 
circuit around the heads of those long lagoons, called 
voes, which run up into and indent the country in such a 
manner, that, though the Mainland of Zetland may be 
thirty miles or more in length, there is, perhaps, no part 
of it which is more than three miles distant from the salt 
water. But they had now approached the north-western 
extremity of the isle, and travelled along the top of an 
immense ridge of rocks, which had for ages withstood the 
rage of the Northern Ocean, and of all the winds by 
which it is buffeted. 

At length exclaimed Magnus to his daughters, “ There 
is Norna’s dwelling ’ — Look up, Minna, my love ; for if 
this does not make you laugh, nothing will. — Saw you 
ever any thing but an osprey that would have made such 
a nest for herself as that is ? — By my namesake’s bones, 
there is not the like of it that living thing ever dwelt in, 
(having no wings and the use of reason,) unless it chanced 
to be the Frawa-Stack off Papa, where the King’s daugh- 
ter of Norway was shut up to keep her from her lovers— 


82 


THE PIRATE. 


and all to little purpose, if the tale be true ;* for, maid 
ens, I would have you to wot that it is hard to keep flax 
from the lowe.’^f 


CHAPTER VII. 


Thrice from the cavern’s darksome womb 
Her groaning voice arose ; 

And come, my daughter, fearless come, 

And fearless tell thy woes ! 

Meikle. 

The dwelling of Norna, though none but a native of 
Zetland, familiar, during his whole life, with every vari- 
ety of rock-scenery, could have seen any thing ludicrous 
in this situation, was not unaptly compared by Magnus 
Troil to the eyry of the osprey, or sea-eagle. It was very 
small, and had been fabricated out of one of those dens 
which are called Burgs and Picts-houses in Zetland, and 
Duns on the mainland of Scotland and the Hebrides, and 
which seem to be the first effort at architecture — the con- 
necting link betwixt a fox’s hole in a cairn of loose stones, 
and an attempt to construct a human habitation out of the 
same materials, without the use of lime or cement of any 
kind, — without any timber, so far as can be seen from 
their remains, — without any knowledge of the arch or of 
the stair. Such as they are, however, the numerous re- 
mains of these dwellings, for there is one found on every 
headland, islet, or point of vantage, which could afford 
the inhabitants additional means of defence, tend to prove 
that the remote people by whom these Burgs were con- 
structed, were a numerous race, and that the islands had 


* The Frawa- Stack, or Maiden-Rock, an inaccessible cliff, divided by a nar- 
row gulph from the island of Papa, has on the summit some ruins, concerning 
ivhich there is a legend similar to that of Danae. 
t Lowe. — flame. 


THE PIRATE. 83 

then a much greater population, than, from other circum- 
stances, we might have been led to anticipate. 

The Burg of which we at present speak had been al- 
tered and repaired at a later period, probably by some 
petty despot, or sea-rover, who, tempted by the security 
of the situation, which occupied the whole of a projecting 
point of rock, and was divided from the mainland by a 
rent or chasm of some depth, had built some additions 
to it in the rudest style of Gothic defensive architecture ; 
— had plastered the inside with lime and clay, and broken 
out windows for the admission of light and air ; and finally, 
by roofing it over, and dividing it into stories, by means of 
beams of wreck-wood, had converted the whole into a tow- 
er, resembling a pyramidical dovecot, formed by a double 
wall, still containing witbin its thickness that set of circu- 
lar galleries, or concentric rings, which is proper to all 
the forts of this primitive construction, and which seems 
to have constituted the only shelter which they were orig- 
inally qualified to afford to their shivering inhabitants.^ 

This singular habitation, built out of the loose stones 
which lay scattered around, and exposed for ages to the 
vicissitudes of the elements, was as grey, weather-beaten, 
and wasted, as the rock on which it was founded, and 
from which it could not easily be distinguished, so com- 
pletely did it resemble in colour, and so little did it differ 
in regularity of shape, from a pinnacle or fragment ol 
the cliff. 

Minna’s habitual indifference to all that of late had 
passed around her, was for a moment suspended by the 
sight of an abode, which, at another and happier period 
of her life, would have attracted at once her curiosity and 
her wonder. Even now she seemed to feel interest as 
she gazed upon this singular retreat, and recollected it 
was that of certain misery and probable insanity, con- 
nected, as its inhabitant asserted, and Minna’s faith ad- 
mitted, with power over the elements, and the capacity of 
intercourse with the invisible world. 

“ Our kinswoman,” she muttered, “ has chosen her 
dwelling well, with no more of earth than a sea-fowl might 
16 


84 


THE PIRATE. 


rest upon, and all around sightless tempests and raging 
waves. Despair and magical power could not have a 
fitter residence.” 

Brenda, on tlie other hand, shuddered when she looked 
on the dwelling to which they were advancing, by a diffi- 
cult, dangerous, and precarious path, which sometimes, 
to her great terror, approached to the verge of the pre- 
cipice ; so that, Zetlander as she was^ and confident as 
she had reason to be in the steadiness and sagacity of the 
sure-footed pony, she could scarce suppress an inclina- 
tion to giddiness, especially at one point, when, being fore- 
most of the party, and turning a sharp angle of the rock, 
her feet, as they projected from the side of the pony, 
hung for an instant sheer over the ledge of the precipice, 
so that there was nothing save empty space betwixt the 
sole of her shoe and the white foam of the vexed ocean, 
which dashed, howled, and foamed, five hundred feet 
below. What would have driven a maiden of another 
country into delirium, gave her but a momentary uneasi- 
ness, which was instantly lost in the hope that the impres- 
sion which the scene appeared to make on her sister’s 
imagination might be favourable to her cure. 

She could not help looking back to see how Minna 
should pass the point of peril, which she herself had just 
rounded ; and could hear the strong voice of the Udal- 
ler, though to him such rough paths were familiar as the 
smooth sea-beach, call, in a tone of some anxiety, “ Take 
heed, Jarto,”* as Minna, with an eager look, dropped her 
bridle, and stretched forward her arms and even her body, 
over the precipice, in the attitude of the wild swan, when, 
balancing itself, and spreading its broad pinions, it pre- 
pares to launch from the cliff upon the bosom of the 
winds. Brenda felt, at that instant, a pang of unutterable 
terror, which left a strong impression on her nerves, even 
when relieved, as it instantly was, by her sister recover- 
ing herself and sitting upright on her saddle, the opportu- 
nity and temptation (if she felt it) passing away, as the 


♦ Jarto , — My dear. 


THE PIRATE. 


85 


quiet, steady animal which supported her rounded the 
projecting angle, and turned its patient and firm step from 
the verge of the precipice. 

They now attained a more level and open space of 
ground, being the flat top of an isthmus of projecting rock, 
narrowing again towards a point, where it was terminated 
by the chasm which separated the small peak, or stack, 
occupied by Norna’s habitation, from the main ridge of 
cliff and precipice. This natural fosse, which seemed 
to have been the work of some convulsion of nature, was 
deep, dark, and irregular, narrower towards the bottom, 
which could not be distinctly seen, and widest at top, 
having the appearance as if that part of the cliff occupied 
by the building had been half rent away from the isthmus 
which it terminated, — an idea favoured by the angle at 
which it seemed to recede from the land, and lean to- 
wards the sea, with the building which crowned it. 

This angle of projection was so considerable, that it 
required recollection to dispel the idea that the rock, so 
much removed from the perpendicular, was about to pre- 
cipitate itself seaward, with its old tower : and a timorous 
person would have been afraid to put foot upon it, lest 
an addition of weight, so inconsiderable as that of the hu- 
man body, should hasten a catastrophe which seemed at 
every instant impending. 

Without troubling himself about such fantasies, theUdal- 
ler rode towards the tower, and there dismounting along 
with his daughters, gave the ponies in charge to one of their 
domestics, with directions to disincumber them of their bur- 
dens, and turn them out for rest and refreshmeat upon the 
nearest heath. This done, they approached the gate, 
which seemed formerly to have been connected with the 
land by a rude draw-bridge, some of the apparatus of 
which was still visible. But the rest had been long de- 
moliy'ied, and was replaced by a stationary foot-bridge, 
formed of barrel-staves covered with turf, very narrow 
and ledgeless, and supported by a sort of arch, construct- 
ed out of the jaw-bones of the whale. Along thi^ brigg 

VJL. II. 


85 


THE PIRATE. 


of dread” the Udaller stepped with his usual portly 
majesty of stride, which threatened its demolition and 
his own at the same time ; his daughters trod more light- 
ly and more safely after him, and the whole party stood 
before the low and rugged portal of Norna’s habitation. 

“ If she should be abroad after all,” said Magnus, as 
he plied the black oaken door with repeated blows ; — 
“ but if so we will at least lie by a day for her return, 
and make Nick Strumpfer pay the demurrage in bland 
and brandy.” 

As he spoke the door opened, and displayed, lo the 
alarm of Brenda, and the surprise of Minna herself, a 
square-naade dwarf, about four feet five inches high, with 
a head of most portentous size, and features correspond- 
ent — namely, a huge mouth, a tremendous nose, with large 
black nostrils, which seemed to have been slit upwards, 
blubber lips of an unconscionable size, and huge wall-eyes, 
with which he leered, sneered, grinned, and goggled on 
the Udaller as an old acquaintance, without uttering a sin- 
gle word. The young women could hardly persuade 
themselves that they did not see before their eyes the 
very demon Trolld, who made such a distinguished figure 
in Noma’s legend. Their father went on addressing this 
uncouth apparition in terms of such condescending friend- 
ship as the better sort apply to their inferiors, when they 
wish, for any immediate purpose, to conciliate or coax 
them, a tone, by the by, which generally contains, in its 
very familiarity, as much offence as the more direct as- 
sumption of distance and superiority. 

“ Ha, Nick ! honest Nick !” said the Udaller, ‘‘ here 
you are, lively and lovely as Saint Nicholas your name- 
sake, when he is carved with an axe for the head-piece 
of a Dutch dogger. How dost thou do, Nick, or Paco- 
let, if you like that better ? Nicholas, here are my two 
daughters, nearly as handsome as thyself thou seest.” 

Nick grinned, and did a clumsy obeisance by way of 
courtesy, but kept his broad misshapen person firmly 
placed in the door-way. 


THE PIRATE. 


87 


“ Daughters,” continued the Udaller, who seemed to 
have his reasons for speaking this Cerberus fair, at least 
according to his own notions of propitiation, — “ this is 
Nick Strumpfer, maidens,whom his, mistress calls Paco- 
iet, being a light-limbed dwarf, as you see, like him that 
wont to fly about, like a Scourie, on his wooden hobby- 
horse, in the old story-book of Valentine and Orson, that 
you, Minna,,used to read whilst you were a c&ld. I as- 
sure you he can keep his mistress’s counsel, and never 
told one of her secrets in his life — ha, ha, ha ! 

The ugly dwarf grinned ten times wider than before, 
and showed the meaning of the Udaller’s jest, by opening 
his immense jaws, and throwing back his head, so as to 
discover, that, in the immense cavity of his mouth, there 
only remained the small shrivelled remnant of a tongue, 
capable perhaps of assisting him in swallowing his food, 
but unequal to the formation of articulate sounds. Wheth- 
er this organ had been curtailed by cruelty, or injured by 
disease, it was impossible to guess ; but that the unfortu- 
nate being had not been originally dumb, was evident from 
his retaining the sense of hearing. Having made^ this 
horrible exhibition, he repaid the Udaller’s mirth with a 
loud, horrid, and discordant laugh, which had something 
in it the more hideous that his mirth seemed to be excited 
Dy his own misery. The sisters looked on each other in 
silence and fear, and even the Udaller appeared discon- 
certed. 

‘‘ And how now ?” he proceeded, after a minute’s 
pause. “ When didst thou ,wash that throat of thine, 
that is about the width of the Pentland Frith, with a cup 
of brandy ? Ha, Nick ! I have that with me which is 
sound stuff, boy, ha !” 

The dwarf bent his beetle-brows, shook his misshapen 
head, and made a quick sharp indication, throwing his 
right hand up to his shoulder with the thumb pointed 
backwards. 

“ What! my kinswoman,” said the Udaller, comprehend- 
\ng, ihe signal, “^will be angry ? Well, shalt have a flask 


68 


THE PIRATE. 


to carouse when she is from home, old acquaintance ; -* 
lips and throats may swallow though they cannot speak.’-^ 

Pacolet grinned a grim assent. 

“ And now,” said the Udaller, “ stand out of the way. 
Pacolet, and let me carry my daughters to see their kins- 
woman. By the bones of Saint Magnus, it shall he a 
good turn in thy way. — Nay, never shake thy head, man ; 
for if thy mistress be at home, see her we will.” 

The dwarf again intimated the impossibility of their 
being admitted, partly by signs, partly by mumbling some 
uncouth and most disagreeable sounds, and the Udaller’s 
mood began to arise. 

“ Tittle tattle, man!” said he ; “ trouble not me with 
thy gibberish, but stand out of the way, and the blame, 
if there be any, shall rest with me.” 

So saying, Magnus Troil laid his sturdy hand upon 
the collar of the recusant dwarfs jacket of blue wadmaal, 
and, with a strong, but not a violent grasp, removed him 
from the door-way, pushed him gently aside, and enter- 
ed, followed by his two daughters, whom a sense of ap- 
prehension, arising out of all which they saw and heard, 
kept very close to him. A crooked and dusky passage 
through which Magnus led the way, was dimly enlighten- 
ed by a shot-hole, communicating with the interior of the 
building, and originally intended, doubtless, to command 
the entrance by a hagbut or culverin. As they approach- 
ed nearer, for they walked slowly and with hesitation, 
he light, imperfect as it was, was suddenly obscured ; 
and, on looking upward to disern the cause, Brenda was 
startled to observe the pale and obscurely-seen counte- 
nance of Norna gazing downward upon them, without 
speaking a word. There was nothing extraordinary in 
this, as the mistress of the mansion might be naturally 
enough looking out to see what guests were thus suddenly 
and unceremoniously intruding themselves on her pres- 
ence. Still, however, the natural paleness of her features, 
exaggerated by the light in which they were at present 
exhibited, — the immovable sternness of her look, which 
s^howed neither kindness nor courtesy of civil reception, 


THE PIRATE. 


89 


— her dead silence, and the singular appearance of every 
thing about her dwelling, augmented the dismay which 
Brenda had already conceived . Magnus Troil and Minna 
had walked slowly forward, without observing the appari 
t’on of their singular hostess. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


The witch then raised her wither’d arm, 

And waved her wand on high, 

And, while she spoke the mutter’d charm, 

Dark lightning fill’d her eye. 

MeikU 

“ This should be the stair,” said the Uda’Ier, blun- 
dering in the dark against some steps of irregular ascent 
— “ This should be the stair, unless my memory greatly 
fail me ; ay, and there she sits,” he added, pausing at a 
lialf-open door, “ with all her tackle about her as usual, 
and as busy, doubtless, as the devil in a gale of wind.” 

As he made this irreverent comparison, he entered, 
followed by his daughters, the darkened apartment in 
which Norna was seated, amidst a confused collection of 
books of various languages, parchment scrolls, tablets and 
stones inscribed with the straight and angular characters 
of the Runic alphabet, and similar articles, which the 
vulgar might have connected with the exercise of the for- 
bidden arts. There were also lying in the chamber, or hung 
over the rude and ill-contrived chimney, an old shirt of 
mail, with the head-piece, battle-axe, and lance, which 
had once belonged to it ; and on a shelf were disposed, in 
great order, several of those curious stone-axes, formed of 
green granite, which are often found in those islands, where 
they are called thunderbolts by the common people, who 
usually preseiwe them as a charm of security against the 
effects ol lightning. There was, moreover, to be seen 

VOL. II. 


90 


THE PIRATE. 


amid the strange collection, a stone sacrificial knife, used 
perhaps for immolating human victims, and one or two 
of the brazen implements called Celts, the purpose of 
which has troubled the repose of so many antiquaries. 
A variety of other articles, some of which had neither 
name nor were capable of description, lay in confusion 
about the apartment ; and in one corner, on a quantity of 
withered sea-weed, reposed what seemed, at first view, 
to be a large unshapely dog, but, when seen more close- 
ly, proved to be a tame seal, which it had been Norna’s 
amusement to domesticate. 

This uncouth favourite bristled up in its corner, upon 
the arrival of so many strangers, with an alertness similar 
to that which a terrestrial dog would have displayed on 
a similar occasion ; but Norna remained motionless, seat- 
ed behind a table of rough granite, propped up by mis- 
shapen feet of the same material, which, besides the old 
book with which she seemed to be busied, sustained a 
cake of the coarse unleavened bread, three parts oatmeal, 
and one the sawdust of fir, which is used by the poor 
peasants of Norway, beside which stood a jar of water. 

Magnus Troil remained a minute in silence gazing 
upon his kinswoman, while the singularity of her mansion 
inspired Brenda with much fear, and changed, though 
but for a moment, the melancholy and abstracted mood 
of Minna, into a feeling of interest not unmixed with awe. 
The silence was interrupted by the Udaller, who, unwil- 
ling on the one hand to give his kinswoman offence, and 
desirous on the other to show that he was not daunt- 
ed by a reception so singular, opened the conversation 
thus : — 

‘‘ I give you good e’en, cousin Norna — my daughters 
and I have come far to see you.” 

Norna raised her eyes from her volume, looked full at 
her visiters, then let them quietly sit down on the leaf 
with which she seemed to be engaged. 

“ Nay, cousin,” said Magnus, “ take your own time 
— our business with you can wait your leisure. — See 
here, Minna, what a fair prospect here is of the cape, 
scarce a quarter of a mile off! you may see the billows 


THE PIRATE. 


91 


breaking on it topmast high. Our kinswoman has got a 
pretty seal too — Here, sealchie, my«man, whew, whew 

The seal took no farther notice of the Udaller’s ad- 
vances to acquaintance, than by uttering a low growl. 

“ He is not so well trained,” continued the Udal- 
ler, affecting an air of ease and unconcern, “ as Peter 
MacRaw’s, the old piper of Stornoway, who had a seal 
that flapped its tail to the tune of Caberfae, and acknow- 
ledged no other whatever.^® Well, cousin,” he conclud- 

ed, observing that Norna closed her book, “ are you 
going to give us a welcome at last, or must we go farther 
than our blood-i:elation’s house to seek one, and that 
when the evening is wearing late apace ?” 

“ Ye dull and hard-hearted generation, as deaf as the 
adder to the voice of the charmer,” answered Norna, 
addressing them, “ why come ye to me ? You have 
slighted every warning I could give of the coming harm, 
and now that it hath come upon you, ye seek my coun- 
sel when it can avail you nothing.” 

“ Look you, kinswoman,” said the Udaller, with his 
usual frankness, and boldness of manner and accent, “ 1 
must needs tell you that your courtesy is something of the 
coarsest and the coldest. I cannot say that I ever saw 
an adder, in regard there are none in these parts ; but 
touching my own thoughts of what such a thing may be, 
it cannot be termed a suitable comparison to me or to my 
daughters, and that I would have you to know. For old 
acquaintance, and certain other reasons, I do not leave 
your house upon the instant ; but as I came hither in all 
kindness and civility, so I pray you to receive me with 
the like, otherwise we will depart, and leave shame on 
your inhospitable threshold.” 

‘‘ How !” said Norna, “ dare you use such bold lan- 
guage in the house of one from whom all men, from whom 
you yourself come to solicit counsel and aid? They 
who speak to the Reimkennar, must lower their voice to 
her before whom winds and waves hush both blast and 
billow.” 


92 


THE PIRATE. 


“ Blast and billow may hush themselves if they will ’ 
replied the peremptory Udaller, “ but that will not I. 
1 speak in the house of my friend as in my own, and 
strike sail to none.’’ 

‘‘And hope ye,” said Norna, “by this rudeness to 
compel me to answer to your interrogatories ?” 

“ Kinswoman,” replied Magnus Troil, “ I know not 
so much as you of the old Norse sagas ; but this I know, 
that when kempies were Wont, long since, to seek the 
habitations of the gall-dragons and spae-women, they came 
with their axes on their shoulders, and their good swords 
drawn in their hands, and compelled ‘the power whom 
they invoked to listen to and to answer them, ay, were 
it Odin himself.” 

“ Kinsman,” said Norna, arising from her seat, and 
coming forward, “ thou hast spoken well, and in good 
time for thyself and thy daughters ; for hadst thou turned 
from my threshold without extorting an answer, morn- 
ing’s sun had never again shone upon you. The spirits 
who serve me are jealous, and will not be employed in 
aught that may benefit humanity, unless their service is 
commanded by the undaunted inportunity of the brave 
and the free. And now speak, what wouldst thou have 
of me ?” 

“ My dwughter’s health,” replied Magnus, “ which no 
remedies have been able to restore.” 

“ Thy daughter’s health ?” answered Norna ; “ and 
vvhat is the maiden’s ailment ?” 

“ The physician,” said Troil, “ must name the dis- 
ease. All that I can tell thee of it is” 

“ Be silent,” said Norna, interrupting him, “ I know 
all thou canst tell me, and more than thou thyself know 
est. Sit down, all of you — and thou, maiden,” she said, 
addressing Minna, “ sit thou in that chair,” pointing to 
the Place she had just left, “ once the seat of Giervada, 
at whose voice the stars hid their beams, and the moon 
herself grew pale.” 

Minna moved with slow and tremulous step towards 
the rude seat thus indicated to her. It was compos* 


THE PIRATE. 


93 


ed of stone, formed into some semblance of a chair by 
the rough and unskilful hand of some ancient Gothic 
artist. 

Brenda, creeping as close as possible to her father, 
seated herself along with him upon a bench at some dis- 
tance from Minna, and kept her eyes, with a mixture of 
fear, pity, and anxiety, closely fixed upon her. It would 
be difficult altogether to decipher the emotions by which 
this amiable and affectionate girl was agitated at the mo- 
ment. Deficient in her sister’s predominating quality of 
high imagination, and little credulous, of course, to the 
marvellous, she could not but entertain some vague and 
indefinite fears on her own account, concerning the nature 
of the scene which was soon to take place. But these 
were in a manner swallowed up in her apprehensions on 
tlie score of her sister, who, with a frame so much weak- 
ened, spirits so much exhausted, and a mind so suscep- 
tible of the impressions which all around her was calcu- 
lated to excite, now sat pensively resigned to the agency 
of one, whose treatment might produce the most baneful 
effects upon such a subject. 

Brenda gazed at Minna, who sat in that rude chair of 
dark stone, her finely formed shape and limbs making the 
strongest contrast with its ponderous and irregular angles, 
her cheek and lips as pale as clay, and her eyes turned 
upward, and lighted with the mixture of resignation and 
excited enthu«iasm, which belonged to her disease and 
her character. The younger sister then looked on Nor- 
na, who muttered to herself in a low, monotonous manner, 
as, gliding from one place to another, she collected dif- 
ferent articles, which she placed one by one on the table. 
And lastly, Brenda looked anxiously to her father, to 
gather, if possible, from his countenance, whether he en- 
tertained any part of her own fears for the consequences 
of the scene which was to ensue, considering the state of 
Minna’s health and spirits. But Magnus Tfoil seemed 
to have no such apprehensions ; he viewed with stern com- 
posure Norna’s preparations ; and appeared to wait the 
e\ ent with the composure of one, who, confiding in the skill 


£14 


THE PIRATE. 


of a medical artist, sees him preparing to enter upon some 
important and painful operation, in the issue of which he 
is interested by friendship or by affection. 

Norna, meanwhile, went onward with her preparations, 
until she had placed on the stone table a variety of mis- 
cellaneous articles, and among the rest, a small chafing- 
dish full of charcoal, a crucible, and a piece of thin sheet- 
lead. She then spoke aloud — “ It is well that I was 
aware of your coming hither — ay, long before you your- 
self had resolved it — how should I else have been pre- 
pared for that which is now to be done ? — Maiden,” she 
continued, addressing Minna, “ where lies thy pain ?” 

The patient answered, by pressing her hand to the left 
side of her bosom. 

“ Even so,” replied Norna, “ even so — ’tis the site of 
weal or woe. — And you, her father and her sister, think 
not this the idle speech of one who talks by guess — if I 
can tell the ill, it may be that I shall be able to render 
that less severe, which may not, by any aid, be wholly 
amended. — The heart — ay, the heart — touch that, and 
the eye grows dim, the pulse fails, the wholesome stream 
of our blood is choked and troubled, our limbs decay like 
sapless sea-weed, in a summer’s sun ; our better views of 
existence are passed and gone; what remains is the 
dream of lost happiness, or the fear of inevitable evil. 
But the Reimkennar must to her work — well it is that I 
have prepared the means. 

She threw off her long dark-coloured mantle, and stood 
before them in her short jacket of light-blue wadmaal, 
with its skirt of the same stuff, fancifully embroidered with 
black velvet, and bound at the waist with a chain or girdle 
of silver, formed into singular devices. Norna next undid 
the fillet which bound her grizzled hair, and shaking her 
head wildly, caused it to fall in dishevelled abundance 
over her face and around her shoulders, so as almost en- 
tirely to hide her features. She then placed a small 
crucible on the chafing-dish already mentioned, — dropped 
a few drops from a vial on the charcoal below, — pointed 
towards it her wrinkled fore-finger, which she had pre 


THE PIRATE. 


95 


viously moistened with liquid from another small bottle, 
and said with a deep voice, “ Fire, do thy duty — and 
the words were no sooner spoken, than, probably by som.3 
chemical combination of which the spectators were not 
aware, the charcoal which was under the crucible became 
slowly ignited ; while Norna, as if impatient of the delay, 
threw hastily back her disordered tresses, and, while her 
features reflected the sparkles and red light of the 
fire, and her eyes flashed from amongst her hair like those 
of a wild animal from its cover, blew fiercely till the whole 
was in an intense glow. She paused a moment from her 
toil, and muttering that the elemental spirit must be thank- 
ed, recited, in her usual monotonous, yet wild mode of 
chanting, the following verses: — 

" Thou so needful, yet so dread, 

With cloudy crest, and wing of red ; 

Thou, without whose genial breath 
The north would sleep the sleep of death ; 

Who deign’st to warm the cottage hearth, 

Yet hurl’st proud palaces to earth, — 

Brightest, keenest of the Powers, 

Which form and rule this world of ours, 

With my rhyme of Runic, I 
Thank thee for thy agency." 


She then severed a portion from the small mass of 
sheet-lead which lay upon the table, and, placing it in the 
crucible, subjected it to the action of the lighted charcoal, 
and, as it melted, she sung, — 

Old Reimkennar, to thy art 
Mother Hertha sends her part ; 

She, whose gracious bounty gives 
Needful fond for all that lives. 

From the deep mine of the North, 

Came the mystic metal forth. 

Doomed amidst disjointed stones. 

Long to cere a cham])ion’s bones, 

Disinhumed my charms to aid — 

Mother Earth, my thanks are paid.” 


TUE PIRATE. 




She then poured out some water fr^m the jar into a 
large cup, or goblet, and sung once more, as she slowly 
stirred it round with the end of her staff : — 

** Girdle of our islands dear, 

Element of Water, hear 
Thou whose power can overwhelm 
Broken mounds and ruined realm 
On the lowly Belgian strand ; 

AFi thy fiercest rage can never 
Of our soil a furlong sever 

From our rock-defended land ; 

Play then gently thou thy part, 

To assist old Noma’s art.” 

She then, with a pair of pincers, removed the crucible 
from the chafing-dish, and poured the lead, now entirely 
melted, into the bowl of water, repeating at the same 
time, — 

“ Elements, each other greeting. 

Gifts and powers attend your meeting !” 


The melted lead, spattering as it fell into the water, 
formed, of course, the usual combination of irregular forms 
which is familiar to all who in childhood have made the 
experiment, and from which, according to our childish 
fancy, we may have selected portions bearing some re- 
semblance to domestic articles — the tools of mechanics, 
or the like. Norna seemed to busy herself in some such 
researches, for she examined the mass of lead with scru- 
pulous attention, and detached it into different portions, 
without apparently being able to find a fragment in the 
form which she desired. 

At length she again muttered, rather as speaking to 
herself than to her guests, “ He, the Viewless, will not 
be omitted, — he will have his tribute even in the work to 
which he gives nothing. — Stern compellqr of the clouds, 
thou also shalt hear the voice of the Reimkennar.” 

Thus speaking, Norna once more threw the lead into 
the crucible, where, hissing and spattering as the wet 
metal touched the sides of the red-hot vessel, it was soon 


THE PIRATE. 


' 97 

Hgain reduced into a state of fusion. The sibyl mean- 
time turned to a corner of the apartment, and opening 
suddenly a window which looked to the north-west, let in 
the fitful radiance of the sun, now lying almost level upon 
a great mass of red clouds, which, boding future tempest, 
occupied the edge of the horizon, and seemed to brood 
over the billows of the boundless sea. Turning to this 
quarter, from which a low hollow moaning breeze then 
blew, Norna addressed the spirit of the winds, in tones 
which seemed to resemble his own : — 

“ Thou, that over billows dark 
Safely send'st the fisher’s bark, — 

Giving’ him a path and motion 
Through the wilderness of ocean ; 

Thou, that when the billows brave ye, 

O’er the shelves can’st drive the navy, — 

Did’st thou chafe as one neglected. 

While thy brethren were respected ? 

To appease thee, see, I tear 
This full grasp of grizzled hair ; 

Oft thy breath hath through it sung. 

Softening to my magic tongue, — 

Now, ’tis thine to bid it fly 
Through the wide expanse of sky, 

’Mid the countless swarms to sail 
Of wild-fowl wheeling on thy gale ; 

Take thy portion and rejoice, — 

Spirit, thou hast heard my voice !” — 

Nornd accompanied these words with the action which 
they described, tearing a handful of hair with vehemence 
from her head, and strewing it upon the wind as she con- 
tinued her recitation. She then shut the casement, and 
again involved the chamber in the dubious twilight, which 
best suited her character and occupation. The melted 
lead was once more emptied into the water, and the vari- 
ous whimsical conformations which it received from the 
operation were examined with great care by the sibyl, 
who at length seemed to intimate, by voice and gesture^ 
that her spell had been successful. She selected from 

VOL. II. 


98 ' 


THE PIRATE 


the fused metal a piece about the size of a small nut 
bearing in shape a close resemblance to that of the human 
heart, and approaching Minna, again spoke in song : — 

** She who sits by haunted well, 

Is subject to the Nixie’s spell ; 

She who walks on lonely beach, 

To the Mermaid’s charmed speech ; 

She who walks round ring of green. 

Offends the peevish Fairy Queen ; 

And she who lakes rest in the Dwarfie’s cave, 

A weary weird of woe shall have. 

'' By ring, by spring, b}' cave, by shore, 

Minna Troil has braved all this and more : 

And yet hatli the root of her sorrow and ill 
A source that’s more deep and more mystical still. 

Minna, whose attention had been latterly something dis- 
turbed by reflections on her own secret sorrow, now 
suddenly recalled it, and looked eagerly on Norna as if 
she expected to learn from her rhymes something of deep 
interest. The northern sibyl, meanwhile, proceeded to 
pierce the piece of lead, which bore the form of a heart, 
and to fix in it a piece of gold wire, by which it might 
be attached to a chain or necklace. She then proceed- 
ed in her rhyme, — 

** Thou art within a demon’s hola, 

More w'ise than Heims, more strong that Trolld ; 

No syren sings so sweet as he, — 

No fay springs lighter on the lea ; 

No elfin power hath half the art 
To sooth, to move, to wring the heart, — 

Life-blood from the cheek to drain. 

Drench the eye, and dry the vein. 

Maiden, ere we farther go, 

Dost thou note me, ay or no ?” 

Minna replied in the same .rythmical manner, which, 
m jest and earnest, was frequently used by the ancient 
Scandinavians, — 

■'■j. 

“ 1 mark thee, my mother, both word, look, and sign ■ \ 
Speak on with the riddle- to read it be mine.” 


THE PIRATE. 


90 

‘ Now, Heaven and every saint be praised !” said 
Magnus ; they are the first words to the purpose, which 
she hath spoken these many days.” 

‘‘ And they are the last which she shall speak for many 
a month,” said Norna, incensed at the interruption. “ ii 
you again break the progress of my spell. Turn your 
faces to the wall, and look not hitherward again, under 
penalty of my severe displeasure. You, Magnus Troil, 
from hard-hearted audacity of spirit, and you, Brenda, 
from wanton and idle disbelief in that which is beyond 
your bounded comprehension, are unworthy to look on 
this mystic work ; and the glance of your eyes mingles 
with, and weakens the spell ; for the powers cannot brook 
distrust.” 

Unaccustomed to be addressed in a tone so peremp- 
tory, Magnus would have made some angry reply ; but 
reflecting that the health pf Minna was at stake, and con- 
sidering that she who spoke was a woman of many sor- 
rows, he suppressed his anger, bowed his head, shrugged 
his shoulders, assumed the prescribed posture, averting 
his head from the table, and turning towards the wall. 
Brenda did the same, on receiving a sign from her father, 
and both remained profoundly silent. 

Norna then addressed Minna once more, — 

Mark me ! for the word I speak 
Shall bring the colour to thy cheek. 

This leaden heart, so light of cost, 

The symbol of a treasure lost, 

Thou shalt wear in hope and in peace. 

That the cause of your sickness and sorrow may cease. 

When crimson foot meets crimson hand 
In the Martyrs’ Aisle, and in Orkney-Iand.” 

Minna coloured deeply at the last couplet, intimating, 
as she failed not to interpret it, that Norna was completely 
acquainted with ‘the secret cause of her sorrow. The 
same conviction led the maiden to hope in the favourable 
issue, which the sibyl seemed to prophesy ; and not ven- 
turing to express her feelings in any manner more intel 


100 


THE PIRATE. 


ligible, she pressed Norna’s withered hand with all the 
warmth of affection, first to her breast and then to her 
bosom, bedewing it at the same time with her tears. 

With more of human feeling than she usually exhibited, 
Norna extricated her hand from the grasp of the poor 
girl, whose tears now flowed freely, and then, with more 
tenderness of manner than she had yet shown, she knotted 
the leaden heart to a chain of gold, and hung it around 
Minna’s neck, singing, as she performed that last branch 
of the spell, — 

" Be patient, be patient, for Patience hath power 
To ward us in danger, like mantle in shower ; 

A fairy gift you best may hold 
In a chain of fairy gold ; 

, The chain and the gift are each a true token, 

That not without warrant old Norna has spoken ; 

But thy nearest and dearest must never behold them, 

Till time shall accomplish the truths I have told them.’’ 


The verses being concluded, Norna carefully arranged 
the chain around her patient’s neck so as to hide it in her 
bosom, and thus ended the spell, — a spell which, at the 
moment I record these incidents, it is known, has been 
lately practised in Zetland, where any decline of health, 
without apparent cause, is imputed by the lower orders 
to a demon having stolen the heart from the body of the 
patient, and where the experiment of supplying the de- 
privation by a leaden one, prepared in the manner describ- 
ed, has been resorted to within these few years. Tn a 
metaphorical sense, the disease may be considered as a 
general one in all parts of the world ; but, as this simple 
and original remedy is peculiar to the isles of Thule, it 
were unpardonable not to preserve it at length, in a nar- 
rative connected with Scottish antiquities.^^ 

A second time Norna reminded her patient, that if she 
showed, or spoke of, the fairy gifts, their virtue would he 
lost — a belief so common as to be received into the super- 
stitions of all nations. Lastly, unbuttoning the collar 
which she had just fastened, she showed her a link of the 


THE PIRATE. 


101 


gold chain, which Minna instantly recognized as that for- 
merly given by Norna to Mordaunt Mertoun. This seem- 
ed to intimate he was yet alive, and under Norna’s 
protection ; and she gazed on her with the most eager 
curiosity. But the sibyl imposed her finger on her lips 
in token of silence, and a second time involved the chain 
in those folds which modestly and closely veiled one of 
the most beautiful, as well as one of the kindest, bosoms 
in the world. 

Norna then extinguished the lighted charcoal, and, as 
the water hissed upon the glowing embers, commanded 
Magnus and Brenda to look around, and behold her task 
accomplished. 


CHAPTER IX. 

See yonder woman, whom our swains revere, 

And dread in secret, while they take her counsel 

When sweethearts shall be kind, or when cross dame shall die ; 

Where lurks the thief who stole the silver tankard. 

And how the pestilent murrain may be cured. — 

This sag-e adviser’s mad, stark mad, my friend ; 

Yet, in her madness, hath the art and cunning 
To wring fool’s secrets from their inmost bosoms. 

And pay inquirers with the coin they gave her. 

Old Play. 

It seemed as if Norna had indeed full right to claim 
the gratitude of the Udaller for the improved condition of 
his daughter’s health. She once more threw open the 
window, and Minna, drying her eyes and advancing with 
affectionate confidence, threw herself on her father’s neck, 
and asked his forgiveness for the trouble she had of late 
occasioned to him. It is unnecessary to add, that tliis 
was at once granted, with a full, though rough burst of 

VOL. II. 


102 


THE PIRATE. 


parental tenderness, and as many close embraces as if bis 
child had been just rescued from the jaws of death. 
When Magnus had dismissed Minna from his arms, to 
throw herself into those of her sister, and express to her, 
rather by kisses and tears than in words, the regret she 
entertained for her late wayward conduct, the Udaller 
thought proper, in the meantime, to pay his thanks to their 
hostess, whose skill had proved so efficacious. But scarce 
had he come out with, “ Much respected kinswoman, I 
am but a plain old Norseman,” — when she interrupted 
him, by pressing her finger on her lips. 

“ There are those around us,” she said, “ who must 
hear no mortal voice, witness no sacrifice to mortal feel- 
ings — there are times when they mutiny even against me, 
their sovereign mistress, because I am still shrouded in 
the flesh of humanity. Fear, therefore, and be silent. I, 
whose deeds have raised me from the low-sheltered val- 
ley of life, wffiere dwell its spcial wants and common 
charities ; — I, who have bereft the Giver of the Gift which 
he gave, and stand alone on a cliff of immeasurable height, 
detached from earth, save from the small portion that 
supports my miserable tread — I alone am fit to cope with 
those sullen mates. Fear not, therefore, but yet be not 
too bold, and let this night to you be one of fasting and 
of prayer.” 

If the Udaller had not, before the commencement of 
the operation, been disposed to dispute the commands of 
the sibyl, it may be well believed he was less so now, 
that it had terminated to all appearance so fortunately. 
So he sat down in silence, and seized upon a volume 
which lay near him as a sort of desperate effort to divert 
ennui, for on no other occasion had Magnus been known 
to have, recourse to a book for that purpose. It chanced 
to be a book much to his mind, being the well-known 
work of Olaus Magnus, upon the manners. of the ancient 
Northern nations. The book is unluckily in the Latin 
language, and the Danske or Dutch were, either of tnem 
much more familiar to the Udaller. But then A was the 
fine edition, published 1555, which contains representa 


THE rillATE. 


103 


tionsof the war-chariots, fishing exploits, warlike exercises, 
and domestic employments of the Scandinavians, execut- 
ed on copperplates ; and thus the information which the 
work refused to the understanding, was addressed to the 
eye, which, as is well known both to old and young, 
answers the purpose of amusement as well, if not better. 

Meanwhile the two sisters, pressed as close to each oth- 
er as two flowers on the same stalk, sat with their arms 
reciprocally passed over each other’s shoulder, as if they 
feared some new and unforeseen cause of coldness was about 
to separate them, and interrupt the sister-like harmony which 
had been but just restored. Norna sat opposite to them, 
sometimes revolving the large parchment volume with which 
they had found her employed at their entrance, and some- 
times gazing on the sisters with a fixed look, in which an in- 
terest of a kind unusuaMy tender, seemed occasionally to 
disturb the stern and rigorous solemnity of her counte- 
nance. All was still and silent as death, and the subsid- 
ing emotions of Brenda had not yet permitted her to won- 
der- whether the remaining hours of the evening were to 
be passed in the same manner, when the scene of tran- 
quillity was suddenly interrupted by the entrance of the 
dwarf Pacolet, or, as the Udaller called him, Nicholas 
Strumpfer. 

Norna darted an angry glance on the intruder, who 
seemed to deprecate her resentment by holding up his 
hands and uttering a babbling sound ; then, instantly re- 
sorting to his usual mode of conversation, he expressed 
himself by a variety of signs made rapidly upon his fing- 
ers, and as rapidly answered by his mistress, so that tlie 
young women, who had never heard of such an art, and 
now saw it practised by two beings so singular, almost 
conceived their mutual intelligence the work of enchant- 
ment. When they had ceased their intercourse, Norna 
turned to Magnus Troil with much haughtiness, and said, 
“ How, my kinsman ? have you so far forgot yourself, as 
to bring earthly food into the house of the Reimkennar, 
and make preparations in the dwelling of Power and of 


104 


THE PIRATE. 


Despair, for refection, and wassail, and revelry ? — Speak 
not — answer not,” she said ; “ the duration of the cure 
which was wrought even now, depends on your silence and 
obedience — bandy but a single look or word with me, and 
the latter condition of that maiden shall be worse than 
the first!” 

This threat was an effectual charm upon the tongue of 
the Udaller, though he longed to indulge it in vindica- 
tion of his conduct. 

“ Follow me, all of you,” said Norna, striding to the 
door of the apartment, “ and see that no one look back- 
wards — we leave not this apartment empty, though we, 
the children of mortality, be removed from it.” 

She went out, and the Udaller signed to his daughters 
to follow, and to obey her injunctions. The sibyl moved 
swifter than her guests down the rude descent (such it 
might rather be termed, than a proper staircase) which 
led to the lower apartment. Magnus and his daughters, 
when they entered the chamber, found their own attend- 
ants aghast at the presence and proceedings of Norna of 
the Fitful-head. 

They had been previously employed in arranging the 
provisions which they had brought along with them, so as 
to present a comfortable cold meal, as soon as the appe- 
tite of the Udaller, which was as regular as the return of 
tide, should induce him to desire some refreshment ; and 
now they stood staring in fear and surprise, while Norna, 
seizing upon one article after another, and well supported 
by the zealous activity of Pacolet, flung their whole pre- 
parations out of the rude aperture which served for a 
window^, and over the cliff, from which the ancient Burg 
arose, into the ocean, which raged and foamed beneath. 
Vifda, (dried beef,) hams, and pickled pork, flew after 
each other into empty space, smoked geese were re- 
stored to the air, and cured fish to the sea, their native 
elements indeed, but which they were no longer capable 
of traversing ; and the devastation proceeded so rapidly 
that the Udaller could scarce secure from the wreck his 
silver drinking-cup ; while the large leathern flask of bran- 


THE PIRATE. 


105 


dy, which was destined to supply his favourite beverage, 
was sent to follow the rest of the supper, by the hands 
of Pacolet, who regarded, at the same time, the disap- 
pointed Udaller with a malicious grin, as if, notwithstand- 
ing his own natural taste for the liquor, he enjoyed the 
disappointment and surprise of Magnus Troil still more 
than he would have relished sharing his enjoyment. 

The destruction of the brandy-flask exhausted the pa- 
tience of Magnus, who roared out, in a tone of no small 
displeasure, “ Why, kinswoman, this is wasteful madnes i 
— where, and on what, would you have us sup 

‘‘ Where you will,” answered Norna, “ and on whai 
you will — but not in my dwelling, and not on the food 
with which you have profaned it. Vex my spirit no 
more, but begone, every one of you ! You have been 
here too long for my good, perhaps for your own.” 

“ How, kinswoman,” said Magnus, “ would you make 
outcasts of us at this time of night, when even a Scotch- 
man would not turn a stranger from the door ? — Bethink 
3'ou, dame, it is shame on our lineage for ever, if this 
squall of yours should force us to slip cables, and go to 
si'a so scantily provided.” 

“ Be silent, and depart,” said Norna ; “ let it suffice 
/ou have got that for which you came. I have no har- 
bourage for mortal guests, no provision to relieve human 
wants. There is beneath the cliff, a beach of the finest 
sand, a stream of water as pure as the well of Kildinguie, 
and the rocks bear dulse as wholesome as that of Guio- 
din ; and well you wot, that the well of Kildinguie and 
the dulse of Guiodin will cure all maladies save Black 
Death.”* 

‘‘ And well I wot,” said the Udaller, “ that I would 
eat corrupted sea-weeds like a starling, or salted seal’s 
flesh like the men of Burraforth, or whilks, buckies, and 
lampits, like the poor sneaks of Stroma, rather than break 
wheat bread and drink red wine in a house where it is 
begrudged me. — And yet,” he said, checking himself, 


• So al least says an Orkney proverb. 


106 


THE PIRATE. 


‘ I am wrong, very wrong, my cousin, to speak chus to 
}^oii, and I should rather thank you for what you have 
done, than upbraid you for following your own ways. But 
[ see you are impatient — we will be all under way pres- 
ently. — And you, ye knaves,” addressing his servants, 
“ that were in such hurry with your service before it 
was lacked, get out of doors with you presently, and man- 
age to catch the ponies ; for I see we must make for 
another harbour to-night, if we would not sleep with an 
empty stomach, and on a hard bed.” 

The domestics of Magnus, already sufficiently alarmed 
at the violence of Norna’s conduct, scarce waited the im- 
perious command of their master to evacuate her dwell- 
ing with all despatch ; and the Udaller, with a daughter 
on each arm, was in the act of following them, when 
Norna said emphatically, “ Stop !” They obeyed, and 
again turned towards her. She held out her hand to 
Magnus, which the placable Udaller instantly folded in 
his own ample palm. 

“ Magnus,” she said, “ we part by necessity, but, 1 
trust, not in anger ?” 

‘‘ Surely not, cousin,” said the warm-hearted Udaller, 
well nigh stammering in his hasty disclamation of all un- 
kindness, — “ most assuredly not. I never bear ill-will to 
any one, much less to one of my own blood, and who has 
piloted me with her advice through many a rough tide, 
as I would pilot a boat betwixt Swona and Stroma, through 
all the waws, wells, and swelchies of the Pentland Frith.” 

Enough,” said Norna, “ and now farewell, with such 
a blessing as I dare bestow — not a word more ! — Maid- 
ens,” she added, draw near, and let me kiss your brows.” 

The sibyl was obeyed by Minna with awe, and by Bren- 
da with fear ; the one overmastered by the warmth oi 
her imagination, the other by the natural timidity of her 
constitution. Norna then dismissed them, and in two 
minutes afterwards they found themselves beyond the 
bridge, and standing upon the rocky platform in front ot 
the ancient Pictish Burg, which it was the pleasure of this 
sequestered female fo inhabit. The night, for it was now 


THE PIRATE. 


107 


fajlen, was unusually serene. A bright twilight, wh ch 
glimmered far over the surface of the sea, supplied the 
brief absence of the summer’s sun ; and the waves seem- 
ed to sleep under its influence, so faint and slumberous 
was the sound with which one after another rolled on and 
burst against the foot of the cliff on which they stood. In 
front of them stood the rugged fortress, seeming, in the 
uniform greyness of the atmosphere, as aged, as shape- 
less, and as massive, as the rock on which it was founded. 
There was neither sight nor sound that indicated human 
habitation, save that from one rude shot-hole glimmered 
the flame of the feeble lamp by which the sibyl was prob- 
ably pursuing her mystical and nocturnal studies, shooting 
upon the twilight, in which it was soon lost and confound- 
ed, a single line of tiny light ; bearing the same propor- 
tion to that of the atmosphere, as the aged woman and 
her serf, the sole inhabitants of that desert, did to the 
solitude with which they were surrounded. 

For several minutes, the party thus suddenly and unex- 
pectedly expelled from the shelter where they had reckon- 
ed upon spending the night, stood in silence, each rapt 
in their own separate reflections. Minna, her thoughts 
fixed on the mystical consolation which she had received, 
in vain endeavoured to extract from the words of Norna 
a more distinct and intelligible meaning; and the Udaller 
had not yet recovered his surprise at the extrusion to 
which he had been thus whimsically subjected, under cir- 
cumstances that prohibited him from resenting as an insult, 
treatment, which, in all other respects, was so shocking to 
the genial hospitality of his nature, that he still felt like 
one disposed to be angry, if he but knew how to set about 
it. Brenda was the first who brought matters to a point, 
by asking whither they were to go, and how they were to 
spend the night ? The question, which was asked in a 
tone, that, amidst its simplicity, had something dolorous 
in it, entirely changed the train of her father’s ideas ; and 
the unexpected perplexity of their situation now striking 
iiim in a comic point of view, he laughed till his very eyes 
ran over, vviiiie every rock around him rang, and tlie 
17 


108 


THE PIRATE. 


sleeping sea-fowl were startled from their repose, by the 
loud hearty explosions of his obstreperous hilarity. 

The Udaller’s daughters, eagerly representing to their 
father the risk of displeasing Norna by this unlimited in- 
dulgence of his mirth, united their efforts to drag him to 
a farther distance from her dwelling. Magnus, yielding 
to their strength, which, feeble as it was, his own fit of 
laughter rendered him incapable of resisting, suffered him- 
self to be pulled to a considerable distance from the Burg, 
and then escaping from their hands, and sitting down, or 
rather suffering himself to drop, upon a large stone which 
lay conveniently by the way-side, he again laughed so long 
and lustily, that his vexed and anxious daughters became 
afraid that there was something more than natural in these 
repeated convulsions. 

At length his mirth exhausted both itself and the Udal- 
ler’s strength. He groaned heavily, wiped his eyes, and 
said, not without feeling some desire to renew his obstre- 
perous cachinnation, “ Now, by the bones of St. Magnus, 
my ancestor and namesake, one would imagine that being 
turned out of doors, at this time of night, was nothing 
short of an absolutely exquisite jest ; for 1 have shaken my 
sides at it till they ache. There we sat, made snug for 
the night, and I made as sure of a good supper and a can 
as ever I had been of either, — and here we are all taken 
aback I and then poor Brenda’s doleful voice, and mel- 
ancholy question, of What is to be done, and where are 
we to sleep ? In good faith, unless one of those knaves, 
who must needs torment the poor woman by their tren- 
cher-work, before it was wanted, can make amends by 
telling us of some snug port under our lee, we have no 
other course for it but to steer through the twilight on the 
bearing of Burgh- Westra, and rough it out as well as we 
can by the way. I am sorry but for you, girls ; for many 
a cruize have I been upon when we were on shorter al- 
lowance than we are like to have now.-r-I would I had 
Dut secured a morsel for you, and a drop for myself ; and 
then thrre had been but little to complain of.” 


THE PIRATE. 


109 


Both sisters hastened to assure the Udaller that they felt 
not the least occasion for food. 

“ Why, that is well,” said Magnus : “ and so being the 
case, I will not complain of my own appetite, though it 
is sharper than convenient. And the rascal, Nicholas 
Strumpfer, — what a leer the villain gave me as he started 
the good Nantz into the salt-water ! He grinned, the 
knave, like a seal on a skerry. — Had it not been for vex- 
ing my poor kinswoman Norna, I would have sent his mis- 
begotten body, and misshapen jolterhead, after my bonny 
flask, as sure as Saint Magnus lies at Kirkwall !” 

By this time the servants returned with the ponies, 
which they had very soon caught — these sensible animals 
finding nothing so captivating in the pastures where they 
had been suffered to stray, as inclined them to resist the 
invitation again to subject themselves to saddle and bridle. 
The prospects of the party were also considerably im- 
proved by learning that the contents of their sumpter- 
pony’s burden had not been entirely exhausted, — a small 
basket having fortunately escaped the rage of Norna and 
Pacolet, by the rapidity with which one of the servants had 
caught up and removed it. The same domestic, an alert 
and ready-witted fellow, had observed upon the beach, 
not above three miles distant from the Burg, and about a 
quarter of a mile off their straight path, a deserted Skio, 
or fisherman’s hut, and suggested that they should occu- 
py it for the rest of the night, in order that the ponies 
might be refreshed, and the young ladies spend the night 
under cover from the raw evening air. 

When we are delivered from great and serious dangers, 
our mood is, or ought to be, grave, in proportion to the 
peril we have escaped, and the gratitude due to protecting 
Providence. But few things raise the spirits more nat- 
urally, or more harmlessly, than when means of extrica- 
tion from any of the lesser embarrassments of life are 
suddenly presented to us ; and such was the case in the 
present instance. The Udaller, relieved from the appre^ 
hensions for his daughters suffering from fatigue, and him- 

VOL. II. 


THE PIRATE. 


ilo 

self from too much appetite and too little food, carolled 
Norse ditties, as he spurred Bergen through the twilight, 
with as much glee and gallantry as if the night-ride had 
been entirely a matter of his own free choice. Brenda 
lent her voice to some of Ids chorusses, which were echoed 
in ruder notes by the servants, who, in that simple state 
of society, were not considered as guilty of any breach 
of respect by mingling their voices with the song. Minna, 
indeed, was as yet unequal to such an effort ; but she 
compelled herself to assume some share in tlie general 
hilarity of the meeting ; and, contrary to her conduct 
since the fatal morning which concluded the Festival of 
Saint John, she seemed to take her usual interest in what 
was going on aiound her, and answered with kindness and 
readiness the repeated inquiries concerning her health, 
with which the Udaller every now and then interrupted 
his carol. And thus they proceeded by night, a happiei 
party by far than they had been when they traced the same 
route on the preceding morning, making light of the dif- 
ficulties of the way, and promising themselves shelter and 
a comfortable night’s rest in the deserted hut which they 
were now about to approach, and which they expected 
to find in a state of darkness and solitude. 

But it was the lot of the Udaller that day to be deceiv- 
ed more than once in his calculations. 

‘‘ And which way lies this cabin of yours, Laurie 
said the Udaller, addressing the intelligent domestic of 
whom we just spoke. 

“ Yonder it should be,” said Laurence Scholey, “ at 
the head of the Voe — but, by my faith, if it be the place, 
there are folk there before us — God and Saint Ronan 
send that they be canny company !” 

In truth there was a light in the deserted hut, strong 
enough to glimmer through every chink of the shingles 
and wreck-wood of which it was constructed, and to give 
the whole cabin the appearance of a smithy seen by night. 
Tlie universal superstition of the Zetlanders seized upon 
Magnus and his escort. 


THE PIRATE. 


Ill 


“ They are Trows,” said one voice. 

“ They are witches,” murmured another. 

“ They are mermaids,” muttered a third ; ** only hear 
their wild singing !” 

All stopped ; and, in effect, some notes of music were 
audible, which Brenda, with a voice that quivered a little, 
but yet had a turn of arch ridicule in its tone, pronounced 
to be the sound of a fiddle. 

“ Fiddle or fiend,” said the Udaller, who, if he believ- 
ed in such nightly apparitions, as had struck terror into his 
retinue, certainly feared them not — “ fiddle or fiend, may 
the devil fetch me if a witch cheats me out of supper to- 
night, for the second time !” 

So saying, he dismounted, clenched his trusty trunch- 
eon in his hand, and advanced towards the hut, followed 
by Laurence alone ; tne rest of his retinue continuing 
stationary on the beach, beside his daughters and the 
ponies. 


CHAPTER X. 

What lio, my jovial mates ! come on ! we'll frolic it 
Like fairies frisking in the merry moonshine, 

Seen by the curtal friar, who, from some christening 
Or some blithe bridal, hies belated cell-ward— 

He starts, and changes his bold bottle swagger 
To churchman's pace professional, and, ransacking 
His treacherous memory for some holy hymn, 

Finds but the roundel of the midnight catch.— OW Play. 

The stride of the Udaller relaxed nothing of its length 
or of its firmness as he approached the glimmering cabin, 
from which he now heard distinctly the sound of the fiddle. 
But, if still long and firm, his steps succeeded each other 
rather more slowly than usual; for, like a cautious, though 
a brave general, Magnus was willing to reconnoitre his ene- 
my before assailing him. The trusty Laurence Scholey, 
who kept close behind his master, now whispered into his 
ear. “ So help me, sir, as I believe that the ghaist, if ghaist 
it be, that plays so bravely on the fiddle, must be the ghaist 


112 


THE PIRATE. 


of Maister Claud Halcro, or his wraith at least ; for never 
was bow drawn across thairm which brought out the gude 
auld spring of ‘ Fair and Lucky,’ so like his ain.” 

Magnus was himself much of the same opinion ; for he 
knew the blithe minstrelsy of the spirited little old man, 
and hailed the hut with a hearty hilloah, which was imme- 
diately replied to by the cheery note of his ancient mess- 
mate, and Halcro himself presently made his appearance 
on the beach. 

The Udaller now signed to his retinue to come up, 
while he asked his friend, after a kind greeting and much 
shaking of hands, “ How the devil he came to sit there, 
playing old tunes in so desolate a place, like an owl whoop- 
ing to the moon V 

“ And tell me rather, Fowd,” cald Claud Halcro 
‘‘ how you came to be within hearing of me ? ay, by my 
word, and with your bonny daughters too ? — Jarto Minns 
and Jarto Brenda, I bid you welcome to these yellow 
sands — and there, shake hands, as glorious John, or some 
other body, says, upon the same occasion. And how 
came you here like two fair swans, making day out of 
twilight, and turning ail you step upon to silver ?” 

“ You shall know all about them presently,” answered 
Magnus ; “ but what messmates have you got in the hut 
with you ? I think I hear some one speaking.” 

“ None,” replied Claud Halcro, “ but that poor crea- 
ture, the Factor, and my imp of a boy Giles. I — but 
come in — come in — here you will find us starving in com- 
fort — not so much as a mouthful of sour sillocks to be had 
for love or money.” 

“ That may be in a small part helped,” said the Udal- 
ler ; “ for though the best of our supper is gone over the 
Fitful crags to the sealchies and the dog-fish, yet we have 
got something in the kit still — Here, Laurie, bring up the 
vifday 

“ Jokul Tokul /”12 was Laurence’s joyful answer ; and 
he hastened for the basket. 

“By the bicker of Saint Magnus,”!^ said Halcro, “ and 
the burliest bishop that ever quaffed it for luck’s sake, 
there is nc finding your locker empty, Magnus I I believe 


THE PIRATE. 


113 


sincerely that ere a friend wanted, you could, like old 
Luggie the warlock, fish up boiled and roasted out of the 
pool of Kibster.”i4 

‘ You are wrong there, Jarto Claud,” said Magnus 
Troil, “for far from helping me to a supper, the foul fiend, 
I believe, has carried off great part of mine this blessed 
evening ; but you are welcome to share and share of what 
is left.” This was said while the party entered the hut. 

Here, in a cabin which smelled strongly of dried fish, 
and whose sides and roof were jet-black with smoke, they 
found the unhappy Triptolemus Yellowley, seated beside 
a fire made of dried sea-w'eed, mingled with some peats 
and wreck-wood ; his sole companion a barefooted, yel- 
low-haired Zetland boy, who acted occasionally as a kind 
of page to Claud Halcro, bearing his fiddle on his shoul- 
der, saddling his pony, and rendering him similar duties 
of kindly observance. The disconsolate agriculturist, for 
such his visage betokened him, displayed little surprise 
and less animation, at the arrival of the Udaller and his 
companions, until, after the party had drawn close to the 
fire, (a neighbourhood which the dampness of the night- 
air rendered far from disagreeable,) the pannier was open 
ed, and a tolerable supply of barley-bread and hung beef, 
besides a flask of brandy, (no doubt smaller than that 
which the relentless hand of Pacolet had emptied into the 
ocean,) gave assurances of a tolerable supper. Then, 
indeed, the worthy Factor grinned, chuckled, rubbed his 
hands, and inquired after all friends at Burgh- Westra. 

When they had all partaken of this needful refreshment, 
the Udaller repeated his inquiries of Halcro, and more 
particularly of the Factor, how they came to be nestled 
in such a remote corner at such an hour of night. 

“ Maister Magnus Troil,” said Triptolemus, w^hen a 
second cup had given him spirits to tell his tale of woe, 
“ I would not have you think that it is a little thing that 
disturos me. I came of that grain that takes a sair wind 
to shake it. I have seen many a Martinmas and many a 
Whitsunday in my* day, whilk are the times peculiarly 
grievous to those of my craft, and I could aye bide the 


114 


THE PIRATE. 


oang ; but I think I am like to be dung ower a’tliegithei 
in this damned country of yours — Gude forgie me foi 
swearing — but evil communication corrupteth good man- 
ners.” ^ , 

‘‘ Now, Heaven guide us,” said the Udaller, ‘‘ what is 
the matter with the man ? Why, man, if you will put 
your plough into new land, you must look to have it hank 
on a stone now and then — ^You must set us an example 
of patience, seeing you come here for our improvement.” 

“ And the deil was in my feet when I did so,” said 
the Factor ; “ I had better have set myself to improve 
the cairn on Clochnaben.” 

But what is it, after all,” said the Udaller, “ that 
has befallen you ? — what is it that you complain of ?” 

“ Of every thing that has chanced to me since I land- 
ed on this island, which I believe was accursed at the 
very creation,” said the agriculturist, “ and assigned as a 
fitting station for sorners, thieves, whores, (I beg the 
ladies’ pardon,) witches, bitches, and all evil spirits !” 

“ By my faith, a goodly catalogue!” said Magnus ; 
“ and there has been the day, that, if I had heard you 
give out the half of it, 1 should have turned improver 
myself, and have tried to amend your manners with a 
cudgel.” 

“ Bear with me,” said the Factor, “ Maister Fowd, 
or Maister Udaller, or whatever else they may call you, 
and as you are strong be pitiful, and consider the luck- 
less lot of any inexperienced person who lights upon 
this earthly paradise of yours. He asks for drink, they 
bring him sour whey — no disparagement to your brandy, 
Fowd, which is excellent — You ask for meat, and they 
bring you sour sillocks that Satan might choke upon — ^You 
Call your labourers together, and bid them work; it proves 
Saint Magnus’s day, or Saint Ronan’s day, or some in- 
fernal saint or other’s — or else, perhaps, they have come 
out of bed with the wrong foot foremost, or they have seen 
an ow/ or a rabbit has crossed their path, or they have 
dreamed of a roasted horse — in short, nothing is to be 


THE PIRATE. 


115 


done — Give them a spade, and they work as if it burnt 
their fingers ; but set them to dancing, and see when 
they will ure of funking and flinging!” 

And why should they, poor bodies,” said Claud 
Halcro, ‘‘ as long as there are good fiddlers to play to 
them ?” 

“ Ay, ay,” said Triptolemus, shaking his head, “ you 
are a proper person to uphold them in such a humour, 
W ell, to proceed : — I till a piece of my best ground ; 
down comes a sturdy beggar that wants a kail-yard, or a 
planta-cruive, as you call it, and he claps down an en- 
closure in the middle of my bit shot of corn, as lightly as 
if he was baith laird and tenant ; and gainsay him wha 
likes, there he dibbles in his kail-plants ! I sit down to my 
sorrowful dinner, thinking to have peace and quietness there 
at least ; when in comes one, two, three, four, or half-a- 
dozen of skelping long lads, from some foolery or anither, 
misca’ me for barring my ain door against them, and eat 
up the best half of what my sister’s providence — and she 
is not over bountiful — has allotted for my dinner ! Then 
enters a witch, with an ellwand in her hand, and she 
raises the wind or lays it, whichever she likes, majors up 
and down my house as if she was mistress of it, and I am 
bounden to thank heaven if she carries not the broad- 
side of it away with hey !” 

“ Still,” said the Fowd, this is no answer to my 
question — how the foul fiend I come to find you at moor- 
ings here ?” 

“ Have patience, worthy sir,” replied the afflicted Fac- 
tor, and listen to what I have to say, for I fancy it will 
be as well to tell you the whole matter. You must 
know, I once thought that I had gotten a small God-send, 
that might have made all these matters easier.” 

‘‘ How ! a God-send ! Do you mean a wreck. Master 
Factor ?” exclaimed Magnus ; “ shame upon you, that 
should have set example to others !” 

“ It was no wrecjc,” said the Factor ; “ but, if you must 
needs know, it chanced that as I raised an hearth-stane 
in one of the ol 1 chambers at Stourburgh, (for my sistei 


116 


THE PIRATE 


is miifded that there is little use in niair fire-places abcut 
a house than one, and I wanted the stane to knock bear 
upon,) — when, what should I light on but a horn full ot 
old coins, silver the maist feck of them, but wi’ a bit 
sprinkling of gold amang them too.^^ Weel, I thought this 
was a dainty windfa’, and so thought Babie, and we were 
the mair willing to put up with a place where there were 
siccan braw nest-eggs— and we slade down the stane can- 
nily over the horn, which seemed to me to be the very 
cornucopia, or horn of abundance ; and for further se- 
curity, Babie wad visit the room maybe twenty times in 
the day, and mysell at an orra time, to the boot of a’ 
that.” 

“ On my word, and a very pretty amusement,” said 
Claud Halcro, “ to look over a horn of one’s own silver. 
I question if glorious John Dryden ever enjoyed such a 
pastime in his life — I am very sure I never did.” 

“ Yes, but you forget, Jarto Claud,” said the Udaller, 
“ that the Factor was only counting over the money for 
my Lord the Chamberlain. As he is so keen for his 
Lordship’s rights in whales and wrecks, he would not 
surely forget him in treasure-trove.” 

“ A-hem! a-hem! a-he— he — hem!” ejaculated Trip- 
toleinus, seized at the moment with an awkward fit of cough- 
ing, — “no doubt, my Lord’s right in the matter would have 
been considered, being in the hand of one, though 1 say it, 
as just as can be found in Angus-shire,let alonethe Mearns. 
But mark what happened of late 1 One day, as I went up 
to see that all was safe and snug, and just to count out 
the share that should have been his Lordship’s — for surely 
the labourer, as one may call the finder, is worthy of his 
hire- -nay, some learned men say, that when the finder, in 
point of trust and in point of power, representeth the dom-^ 
inns or lord superior, he taketh the whole ; but let that 
pass, cis a kittle question in apicibus juris, as we wont to 
say at Saint Andrews, — Well, sir and ladies, when I went 
to the upper chamber, what should I ^e but an ugsome, ill- 
shape 3, and most uncouth dwarf, that wanted but hoofs and 
horn? to have made an utter devil of him, counting ovei 


THE PIRATE. 


in 


the very horn-full of siller ! I am no timorous manj Master 
Fowd, but, judging that I should proceed with caution 
in such a matter — for I had reason to believe that there 
was devilry in it — I accosted him in Latin, (whilk it is 
maist becoming to speak to aught whilk taketh upon it as 
a goblin,) and conjured him tn nomine^ and so forth, with 
such words as my poor learning could furnish of a sucl- 
denty, whilk, to say truth, were not so many, nor altogeth- 
er so purely latineezed as might have been, had I not 
been few years at college, and many at the pleugh. 
Well, sirs, he started at first, as one that heareth that 
which he expects not; but presently recovering himself, 
he walls on me with his grey een, like a wild-cat, and 
opens his mouth, whilk resembled the mouth of an oven, 
for the deil a tongue he had in it, that I could spy, and 
took upon his ugly self, altogether, the air and bearing of 
a bull-dog, whilk I have seen loosed at a fair upon a mad 
staig whereupon I was something daunted, and with- 
drew myself to call upon sister Babie, who fears neither 
dog nor devil, when there is in question the little penny 
siller. And truly she raise to the fray as I hae seen the 
Lindsays and Ogilvies bristle up, when Donald Mac Don- 
noch, or the like, made a start down frae the Highlands 
on the braes of Islay. But an auld useless carline, called 
Tronda Dronsdaughter, (they might call her Drone the 
sell o’ her, without farther addition,) flung herself right 
in my sister’s gate, and yelloched and skirled, that you 
would have thought her a whole generation of hounds ; 
whereupon I judged it best to make ae yoking of it, and 
stop the pleugh until I got my sister’s assistance. Whilk 
when I had done, and we mounted the stair to the apart- 
ment in w'hich the said dwarf, devil, or other apparition, 
was to be seen, dwarf, horn and siller, were as clean gane 
as if tl!e cat had lickit the place where I saw them.” 

Here Triptolemus paused in his extraordinary narra- 
tion, while the rest of the party looked upon each other 
in surprise, and the Udaller muttered to Claud Halcro— ■ 
“ By all tokens, this must have been either the devil or 
Nicholas Strumpfer; and, if it were him, he is more of 


118 


THE PIRATE. 


a goblin than e’er I gave him credit for, and shall be apt 
to rate him as such in future.” Then, addressing the 
Factor, he inquired — “ Saw ye nought how this dwarf 
of yours parted company ?” 

“As I shall answer it, no,” replied TriptoJernus, 
with a cautious look around him, as if daunted by tlie 
recollection, “ neither I, nor Babie who had her wits 
more about her, not having seen this unseemly vision, 
could perceive any way by whilk he made evasion. Only 
Tronda said she saw him flee forth of the window of the 
west roundel of the auld house, upon a dragon, as she 
averred. But, as the dragon is held a fabulous animal, 
I suld pronounce her averment to rest upon deceptio 
visus^ 

“ But may we not ask farther,” said Brenda, stimu- 
lated by curiosity to know as much of her cousin Norna’s 
lamily as was possible, “ how all this operated upon 
Master Yellowley, so as to occasion his being in this place 
at so unseasonable an hour r” 

“ Seasonable it must be, Mistress Brenda, since it 
brought us into your sweet company,” answered Claud 
Halcro, whose mercurial brain far outstripped the slow 
conceptions of the agriculturist, and who became impa- 
tient of being so long silent. “ To say the truth, it was 
I. Mistress Brenda, who recommended to our friend the 
Factor, whose house I chanced to call at just after this 
mischance, (and where, by the way, owing doubtless to 
the hurry of their spirits, I was but poorly received,) to 
make a visit to our other friend at Fitful-head, well judging 
from certain points of the story, at which my other and 
more particular friend than either (looking at Magnus) 
may chance to form a guess, that they who break a head 
are the best to find a plaster. And as our friend the Fac- 
tor scrupled travelling on horseback, in respect of some 
tumbles from our ponies ” 

“ Which are incarnate devils,” said Triptolemus, aloud 
muttering under his breath, “ like every live thing that 1 
nave found in Zetland.” 


THE PIRATE. 


119 


Well, Fowd,’’” continued Halcro, “ I undertook to 
carry him to Fitful-head in my little boat, which Giles and 
[ can manage as if it were an Admiral’s barge full man- 
ned ; and Master Triptolemus Yellowley will tell you how 
seaman-like I piloted him to the little haven, within a 
quarter of a mile of Norna’s dwelling.” 

I wish to heaven you had brought me as safe back 
again,” said the Factor. 

“ Why to be sure,” replied the minstrel, “ I am, as 
glorious John says, — 

A daring pilot in extremity, 

Pleased with the danger when the waves go high, 

I seek the storm — but, for a calm unfit, 

Will steer too near the sands, to show my wit.” 

“ I showed little wit in entrusting myself to your 
charge,” said Triptolemus ; “ and you still less when you 
upset the boat at the throat of the Voe, as you call it, 
when even the poor bairn, that was mair than half drown- 
ed, told you that you were carrying too much sail ; and 
then ye wad fasten the rape to the bit stick on the boat- 
side, that ye might have time to play on the fiddle.” 

What !” said the Udaller, “ make fast the sheets to 
the thwart ? a most unseasonable practice, Claud Halcro.” 

“ And sae came of it,” replied the agriculturist ; “ for 
the neist blast,(and we are never lang without ane in these 
parts,)whomled us as a gudewife would whomle a bowie, 
and ne’er a thing wad Maister Halcro save but his fiddle. 
Thepuir bairn swam out like a water-spaniel, and I swat- 
tered hard for my life, wi’ the help of ane of the oars ; 
and here we are, comfortless creatures, that, till a good 
wind blew you here, had naething to eat but a mouthful 
of Norway rusk, that has mair saw-dust than rye-meal in 
it, and tastes liker turpentine than any thing else.” 

I thought we heard you very merry,” said Brenda, 
‘ as we came along the beach.” 

. Ye heard a fiddle. Mistress Brenda,” said the Fac 
tor ; “ and maybe ye may think lliere can be nae dearth. 
Miss, where that Is sKirling. But llien it was Maistei 


120 


THE PIRATE. 


Claud Halcro’s fiddle, whilk, I am api lo think, wad skirl 
at his father’s deatfi-bed, or at his ain, sae lang as his 
fingers could pinch the thairm. And it was nae sma’ ag- 
gravation to my misfortune to have him bumming a’ sorts 
of springs, — Norse and Scots, Highland and Lawland, 
English and Italian, in my lug, as if nothing had happened 
that was amiss, and we all in such stress and perplexity.’ 

“ Why I told you sorrow would never right the boat 
Factor,” said the thoughtless minstrel, “ and I did my 
best to make you merry ; if 1 failed, it was neither my 
fault nor my fiddle’s. I have drawn the bow across it 
before glorious John Dryden himself.” 

“ I will hear no stories about glorious John Dryden,” 
answered the Udaller, who dreaded Halcro’s narratives 
as much as Triptolemus did his music. “ I will hear 
nought of him, but one story to every three bowls of punch, 
— it is our old paction, you know. But tell me, instead, 
what said Norna to you about your errand ?” 

“ Ay, there was anither fine up-shot,” said Master 
Y^ellowley. “ She wadna look at us, or listen to us ; only 
she bothered our acquaintance, Master Halcro here, who 
thought he could have sae much to say wi’ her, with about 
a score of questions about your family and household es- 
tate, Master Magnus Troil ; and when she had gotten a’ 
she wanted out of him, I thought she wad hae dung him 
ower the craig, like an empty pea-cod.” 

“ And for yourself?” said the Udaller. 

‘‘ She wadna listen to my story, nor hear sae much as a 
word that 1 had to say,’’’ answered Triptolemus 5 “ and sae 
much xOr them that seek to witches and familiar spirits!” 

“ You needed not to have had recourse to Norna’s 
wisdom. Master Factor,” said Minna, not unwilling, per- 
haps, to stop his railing against the friend who had so 
lately rendered her service ; “ the youngest child in Ork- 
ney cOcild have told you, that fairy treasures, if they are 
not wisely employed for the good of others, as well as ot 
those to whom they are imparted, do not dwell long with 
their possessors.” 


THE PIRATE. 


121 


“ Your humble servant to command, Mistress Minnie,’' 
said Triptolemus ; “ I thank ye for the hint, — and 1 an^ 
blithe that you have gotten your wits — I beg pardon, I 
meant your health — into the barn-yard again. For the 
treasure, I neither used nor abused it, — they that live in 
the house with my sister Babie wad find it hard to do 
either ! — and as for speaking of it, whilk they say muckle 
offends them whom we in Scotland call Good Neigh- 
bours, and you call Drows, the face of the auld Norse 
Kings on the coins themselves might have spoken as much 
about it as ever I did.” 

“ The Factor,” said Claud Halcro, not unwilling to 
seize the opportunity of revenging himself on Triptole- 
mus, for disgracing his seamanship and disparaging his 
music, — “ the Factor was so scrupulous, as to keep the 
thing quiet even from his master, the Lord Chamberlain ; 
but, now that the matter has ta’en wind, he is likely to 
have to account to his master for that which is no longer 
in his possession ; for the Lord Chamberlain will be in no 
hurry, I think, to believe the story of the dwarf. Neither 
do I think, (winking to the Udaller,) that Norna gave 
credit to a word of so odd a story ; and I dare say that 
was the reason that she received us, I must needs say, in 
a very dry manner. I rather think she knew that Trip- 
tolemus, our friend here, had found some other hiding- 
hole for the money, and that the story of the goblin was 
all his own invention. For my part, I will never believe 
there was such a dwarf to be seen as the creature Master 
Yellowley describes, until I set my own eyes on him.” 

“ Then you may do so at this moment,” said the Fac- 
tor ; “ for, by , (he muttered a deep asseveration as 

he sprung on his feet in great horror,) there the creature 
is !” 

All turned their eyes in the direction in which be 
pointed, and saw the hideous misshapen figure of Paco- 
let, with his eyes fixed and glaring at them through the 
smoke. He had stolen upon their conversation unper 
teived, until the Factor’s eye lighted upon him in the fnan- 
voL. n. 


122 


THE PIRATE. 


ner we have described. There was something so ghastly 
m his sudden and unexpected appearance, that even the 
Udaller, to whom his form was familiar, could not help 
starting. Neither pleased with himself for having testified 
this degree of emotion, however slight, nor with the dwari 
who had given cause to it, Magnus asked him sharply, 
what was his business there ? Pacolet replied by produc- 
ing a letter, which he gave to the Udaller, uttering a sound 
resembling the word Shogh.^^ 

“ That is the Highlandman’s language,” said the Udal- 
ler — “ did’st thou learn that, Nicholas, when you lost your 
own ?” 

Pacolet nodded, and signed to him to read his letter. 

“ That is no such easy matter by fire-light, my good 
friend,” replied the Udaller ; ‘‘ but it may concern Min- 
na, and we must try.” 

Brenda offered her assistance, but the Udaller answer- 
ed, “ No, no, my girl, — Norna’s letters must be read by 
those they are written to. Give the knave, Strumpfer, 
a drop of brandy the while, though he little deserves it at 
my hands, considering the grin with which he sent the 
good Nantz down the crag this morning, as if it had been 
as much ditch-water.” 

“ Will you be this honest gentleman’s cup-bearer — his 
Ganymede, friend Yellowley, or shall I ?” said Claud Hal- 
cro, aside to the F actor ; while Magnus Troil, having 
carefully wiped his spectacles, which he produced from 
a large copper-case, had disposed them on his nose, and 
was studying the epistle of Norna. 

“ I would not touch him, or go near him, for all the 
Carse of Gowrie,” said the Factor, whose fears were by 
no means entirely removed, though he saw that the dwarf 
was received as a creature of flesh and blood by the rest 
of the company ; “ but I pray you to ask him what he has 
done with my horn of coins ?” 

The dwarf, who heard the question, threw back his 
(lead, and displayed his enormous throat pointing to it 
with his finger. 


THE PIRATE. 


123 


“ Nay, if he has swallowed them, there is no more to 
ne said,” replied the Factor ; “ only I hope he will thrive 
on them as a cow on wet clover. He is dame Norna’s 
servant it’s like, — such man, such mistress ! But if theft 
and witchcraft are to go unpunished in this land, my Lord 
must find another factor ; for I have been used to live in 
a country where men’s worldly gear Was keepit from in- 
fang and outfang thief, as well as their immortal souls 
from the claws of the deil and his cummers, — sain and 
save us !” 

The agriculturist was perhaps the less reserved in ex- 
pressing his complaints, that the Udaller was for the pre- 
sent out of hearing, having drawn Claud Halcro apart into 
another corner of the hut. 

“ And tell me,” said he, “ friend Halcro, what errand 
took thee to Sumburgh, since I reckon it was scarce the 
mere pleasure of sailing in partnership with yonder bar- 
nacle ?” 

“ In faith, Fowd,”” said the Bard, “ and if you will have 
the truth, I went to speak to Norna on your affairs.” 

On my affairs ?” replied the Udaller ; ‘‘ on what af- 
fairs of mine ?” 

“ Just touching your daughter’s health. I heard that 
Norna refused your message, and would not see Eric 
Scambester. Now, said I to myself, I have scarce joyed 
in meat, or drink, or music, or aught else, since Jarto 
Minna has been so ill ; and I may say, literally as well as 
figuratively, that my day and night have been made sor- 
rowful to me. In short, I thought I might have some 
more interest with old Norna than another, as Scalds and 
wise women were always accounted something akin ; and 
I undertook the journey with the hope to be of some use 
to my old friend and his lovely daughter.” 

“ And it was most kindly done of you, good warm- 
hearted Claud,” said the Udaller, shaking him warmly b) 
the hand, — “ I ever said you showed the good old Norse 
heart amongst all thy fiddling and thy folly. Tut, man, 
never wince for the matter, but be blithe that thy hea*- is 


124 


THE PIRATE. 


better than thy head. Well, — and I warrant you got no 
answer from Noma ?” 

“ None to purpose,” replied Claud Halcro ; “ but she 
held me close to question about Minna’s illness too, — and 
1 told her how 1 had met her abroad the other morning in 
no very good weather, and how her sister Brenda said she 
had hurt her foot ; — in short, I told her all and every thing 
I knew.” 

“ And something more besides, it would seem,” said 
the Udaller : ‘‘ for I, at least, never heard before that 
Minna had hurt herself.” 

“ O, a scratch ! a mere scratch !” said the old man ; 
“ but I was startled about it — terrified lest it had been the 
bite of a dog, or some hurt from a venomous thing. I 
told all to Norna, however.” 

“ And what,” answered the Udaller, “ did she say, in 
the way of reply ?” 

“ She bade me begone about my business, and told me 
that the issue would be known at the Kirkwall F air ; and 
•;aid just the like to this noodle of a Factor — it was all 
that either of us got for our labour,” said Halcro. 

“ That is strange,” said Magnus. My kinswoman 
writes me in this letter not to fail going thither with my 
daughters. This Fair runs strongly in her head ; — one 
would think she intended to lead the market, and yet she 
has nothing to buy or to sell there that I know of. And 
so you came away as wise as you went, and swamped 
your boat at the mouth of the Voe ?” 

“ Why, how could I help it ?” said the poet. I had 
set the boy to steer, and as the flaw came suddenly ofl 
shore, I could not let go the tack and play on the fiddle 
at the same time. But it is all well enough — salt-water 
never harmed Zetlander,soashecould get out of it ; and, 
as Heaven would have it, we were within man’s depth ot 
the shore, and chancing to find this skio, we should have 
done well enough, with shelter and fire, and are much better 
than well with your good cheer and good company. But 
it wears late, and Night and Day must be both as sleepy 
as old Midnight can make them. There is an inner crib 


THE PIRATE. 


125 


here, where the fishers slept, — somewhat fragrant with 
the smell of their fish, but that is wholesome. They shall 
bestow themselves there, with the help of what cloaks 
you have, and then we will have one cup of brandy, and 
one stave of glorious John, or some little trifle of my own, 
and so sleep as sound as cobblers.” 

‘‘ Two glasses of brandy, if you please,” said the 
Udaller, “ if our stores do not run dry ; but not a single 
stave of glorious John or of any one else to-night.” 

And this being arranged and executed agreeably to the 
peremptory pleasure of the Udaller, the whole party con- 
signed themselves to slumber for the night, and on the 
next day departed for their several habitations, Claud 
Halcro having previously arranged with the Udaller that 
he would accompany him and his daughters on their pro- 
posed visit to Kirkwall. 


CHAPTER XL 

" By this hand, thou think'st me as far in the deviFs book as thou and Fab 
staff, for obduracy and persistency. Let the end try the man. . . . Albeit 
I could tell to thee, (as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my 
friend,) I could be sad, and sad indeed too.” 

Henry IV. Part 2rf. 

We must now change the scene from Zetland to Ork- 
ney, and request our readers to accompany us to the ruins 
of an elegant, though ancient structure, called the Earl’s 
Palace. These remains, though much dilapidated, still 
exist in the neighbourhood of the massive and venerable 
pile, which Norwegian devotion dedicated to Saint Mag- 
nus the Martyr, and, being contiguous to the Bishop’^ 
Palace, which is also ruinous, the place is impressive, as 
exhibiting vestiges of the mutations both in Church and 
State which have affected Orkney, jis well as countries 

VOL. II. 


126 


THE PIRATE. 


more exposed to such convulsions. Several parts of 
these ruinous buildings might be selected (under suitable 
modifications) as the model of a Gothic mansion, provid- 
ed architects would be contented rather to imitate what 
is really beautiful in that species of building, than to make 
a medley of the caprices of the order, confounding the 
military, eccles'astical, and domestic styles of all ages at 
random, with additional fantasies and combinations of 
tlieir own device, “ alt formed out of the builder’s brain.” 

The Earl’s Palace forms three sides of an oblong 
square, and has, even in its ruins, the air of an elegant 
yet massive structure, uniting, as was usual in the resi- 
dence of feudal princes, the character of a palace and of 
a castle. A great banquetting-hall, communicating with 
several large rounds, or projecting turret-rooms, and hav- 
ing at either end an immense chimney, testifies the ancient 
Northern hospitality of the Earls of Orkney, and commu- 
nicates, almost in the modern fashion, with a gallery, or 
withdrawing-room, of corresponding dimensions, and hav- 
ing, like the hall, its projecting turrets. The lordly hall 
itself is lighted by a fine Gothic window of shafted stone 
at one end, and is entered by a spacious and elegant stair- 
case, consisting of three flights of stone steps. The ex- 
terior ornaments and proportions of the ancient building 
are also very handsome ; but, being totally unprotected, 
this remnant of the pomp and grandeur of Earls, who 
assumed the license as well as the dignity of petty sov- 
ereigns, is now fast crumbling to decay, and has suffered 
considerably since the date of our story. 

With folded arms and downcast looks, the pirate Cleve- 
land was pacing slowly the ruined hall which we have just 
described ; a place of retirement which he had probably 
chosen because it was distant from public resort. His 
dress was considerably altered from that which he usually 
wore in Zetland, and seemed a sort of uniform, richly 
laced, and exhibiting no small quantity of embroidery ; a 
hat with a plume, and a small sword, very handsomely 
mounted, then the gonstant companion of every one who 
assumed the rank of a gentleman, showed his pretensions 


THE PIRATE. 


127 


to that character. But if his exterior was so far improv- 
ed, it seemed to be otherwise with his health and spirits 
He was pale, and had lost both the fire of his eye and the 
vivacity of his step, and his whole appearance indicated 
melancholy of mind, or suffering of body, or a combina- 
tion of both evils. 

As Cleveland thus paced these ancient ruins, a young 
man, of a light and slender form, whose showy dress 
seemed to have been studied with care, yet exhibited 
more extravagance than judgment or taste, whose manner 
was a janty affectation of the free and easy rake of the 
period, and tlie expression of whose countenance was 
lively, with a cast of effrontery, tripped up the staircase, 
entered the hall, and presented himself to Cleveland, who 
merely nodded to him, and pulling his hat deeper over 
hisijbrows, resumed his solitary and discontented prome- 
nade. 

The stranger adjusted his own hat, nodded in return, 
took snuff, with the air of o. petit maitre, from a richly 
chased gold box, offered it to Cleveland as he passed, 
and being repulsed ratlier coldly, replaced the box in his 
pocket, folded his arms in his turn, and stood looking with 
fixed attention on his motions whose solitude he had in- 
terrupted. At length Cleveland stopped short, as if im- 
patient of being longer the subject of his observation, and 
said abruptly, “ Why can I not be. left alone for half an 
hour, and what the devil is it that you want ?” 

“ I am glad you spoke first,” answered the stranger, 
carelessly ; “ I was determined to know whether you 
were Clement Cleveland, or Cleveland’s ghost, and they 
say ghosts never take the first word, so I now set it down 
for yourself in life and limb ; and here is a fine old hurly- 
house you have found out for an owl to hide himself in 
at mid-day, or a ghost to revisit the pale glimpses of the 
moon, as the divine Shakspeare says.” 

“ Well, well,” answered Cleveland abruptly, “ your 
jest is made, and now let us have your earnest.” 

“ In earnest, then. Captain Cleveland,” replied his 
companion, “ I think vou know me for your friend.” 


128 


THE PIRATE. 


“ I am content to suppose so,” said Cleveland. 

“ It is more than supposition,” replied the young man ; 
‘ I have proved it — proved it both here and elsewhere.” 

“ Well, well,” answered Cleveland, ‘‘ I admit you have 
been always a friendly fellow — and what then ?” 

“ Well, well — and what then ?” replied the other ; 

this is but a brief way of thanking folk. Look you. 
Captain, here is Benson, Barlow, Dick Fletcher, and a 
few others of us who wished you well, have kept your old 
comrade Captain GofFe in these seas upon the look-out 
for you, when he and Hawkins, and the greater part ol 
the ship’s company, would fain have been down on the 
Spanish Main, and at the old trade.” 

“ And I wish to God that you had all gone about your 
business,” said Cleveland, “ and left me to my fate.” 

“ Which would have been to be informed against^md 
hanged. Captain, the first time that any of these Dultih 
or English rascals, whom you have lightened of their car- 
goes, came to set their eyes upon you ; and no place 
more likely to meet with sea-faring men, than in these 
Islands. And here, to screen you from such a risk, we 
have been wasting our precious time, till folk are grown 
very peery ; and when we have no more goods or mon- 
ey to spend amongst them, the fellows will be for grab- 
bing the ship.” 

“ Well then, why do you not sail off without me said 
Cleveland — “ there has been fair partition, and all have 
had their share — let all do as they like. I have lost my 
ship, and having been once a Captain, I will not go to sea 
under command of Goffe or any other man. Besides, 
you know well enough that both Hawkins and he bear me 
ill-will for keeping them from sinking the Spanish brig, 
with the poor devils of negroes on board.” 

“ Why, what the foul fiend is the matter with thee ?” 
said his companion ; “ are you Clement Cleveland, our 
own old true-hearted Clem of the Cleugn, and do you 
talk of being afraid of Hawkins and Goffe, and a score of 
such fellows, when you have myself, and Barlow^, and 
Dick Fletcher at your back ? When was it we deserted 


THE PIRATE. 129 

jrou, either in council or in fight, that you should be afraid 
of our flinching now ? And as for serving under GofFe, I 
hope it is no new thing for gentlemen of fortune who ar(j 
going on the account, to change a Captain now and then? 
Let us alone for that. Captain you shall be ; for death 
rock me asleep if I serve under that fellow GofFe, who 
is as very a blood-hound as ever sucked bitch — no, no, I 
thank you — my Captain must have a little of the gentle- 
man about him, howsoever. Besides, you know, it was 
you who first dipped my hands in the dirty water, and 
turned me from a stroller by land, to a rover by sea.” 

“ Alas, poor Bunce !” said Cleveland, “ you owe me 
little thanks for that service.” 

“ That is as you take it,” replied Bunce ; “ for my 
part, I see no harm in levying contributions on the pub- 
lic either one way or t’other. But I wish you would 
forge>t that name of Bunce, and call me Altamont, as I 
have often desired you to do. I hope a gentleman of the 
roving trade has as good a right to have an alias as a 
stroller, and I never stepped on the boards but what I was 
Altamont at the least.” 

Well then. Jack Altamont,” replied Cleveland, “ since 

Altamont is the word ” 

‘‘ Yes, but. Captain, Jack is not the word, though Al- 
tamont be so. Jack Altamont ? — why, ’tis a velvet coat 
with paper lace — Let it be Frederick, Captain ; Freder- 
ick Altamont is all of a piece.” 

“ Frederick be it then, with all my heart,” said Cleve- 
land ; “ and pray tell me, which of your names will sound 
best at the head of the Last Speech, Confession, and 
Dying Words of John Bunce, alias Frederick Altamont, 
who was this morning hanged at Execution-dock, for the* 
crime of Piracy upon the High Seas i*” 

“ Faith, I cannot answer that question without another 
can of grog. Captain ; so if you will go down with me to 
Bet Haldane’s on the quay, I will bestow some thought 
on the matter, with the help of a right pipe of Trinidado 
We will have the gallon bowl filled with the best stuff you 
ever tasted, and I know some smart wenches who will 


130 


THE PIRATE. 


help us to drain it. But you shake your head — ^you’re 
not i’ the vein? — Well then, I will stay with you ; for by 
this hand, Clem, you shift me not off. Only I will ferret 
you out of this burrow of old stones, and carry you into 
sunshine and fair air. — Where shall we go 

Where you will,” said Cleveland, “ so that you keep 
out of the way of our own rascals, and all others.” 

“ Why, then,” replied Bunce, “ you and I will go up 
to the Hill of Whitford, which overlooks the town, and 
walk together as gravely and honestly as a pair of well 
employed attorneys.” 

As they proceeded to leave the ruinous castle, Bunce, 
turning back to look at it, thus addressed his companion : 

“ Hark ye. Captain, dost thou know who last inhabit- 
ed this old cock-loft ?” 

“ An Eai‘1 of the Orkneys, they say,” replied Cleve- 
land. 

‘‘ And are you advised what death he died of ?” said 
Bunce ; ‘‘ for I have heard that it was of a tight-neck- 
collar — a hempen fever, or tlie like.” 

** “ The people here do say,” replied Cleveland, “ that 
his lordship, some hundred years ago, had the mishap to 
become acquainted with the nature of a loop and a leap 
in the air.” 

“ Why, la ye there now !” said Bunce ; “ there was 
some credit in being hanged in those days, and in such 
worshipful company. And what might his lordship have 
done to deserve such promotion ?” 

“ Plundered the liege subjects, they say,” replied 
Cleveland ; ‘‘ slain and wounded them, fired upon his 
Majesty’s flag, and so forth.” 

“ Near a-kin to a gentleman rover, then,” said Bunce, 
making a theatrical bow towards the old building ; “ and, 
therefore, my most potent, grave, and reverend Signior 
Earl, I crave leave to call you my loving cousin, and bid 
you most heartily adieu. I leave you in the good com- 
pany of rats and mice, and so forth, and I carry with me 
an honest gentleman, who, having of late had no more 
heart than a mouse, is now desirous to run away from his 


THE PIRATE. 


131 


profession and friends like a rat, and would therefore be 
a most fitting denizen of your Earlship’s palace.” 

‘‘ I would advise you not to speak so loud, ray good 
friend, Frederick Altamont, or John Bunce,” said Cleve- 
land ; “ when you were on the stage, you might safely 
rant as loud as you listed ; but, in your present profession, 
of which you are so fond, every man speaks under cor- 
rection of the yard-arm, and a running noose.” 

The comrades left the little town of Kirkwall in silence, 
and ascended the Hill of Whitford, which raises its brow 
of dark heath, uninterrupted by inclosures or cultivation 
of any kind, to the northward of the ancient Burgh of 
Saint Magnus. The plain at the foot of the hill was al- 
ready occupied by numbers of persons who were engaged 
in making preparations for the Fair of Saint 011a, to be 
held upon the ensuing day, and which forms a general 
rendezvous to all the neighbouring islands of Orkney, and 
is even frequented by many persons from the more dis- 
tant archipelago of Zetland. It is, in the words of the 
Proclamation, ‘‘ a free Mercat and Fair, holden at the 
good Burgh of Kirkwall on the third of August, being 
Saint Olla’s day,” and continuing for an indefinite space 
thereafter, extending from three days to a week, and up- 
wards. The Fair is of great antiquity, and derives its 
name from Olaus, Olave, Ollaw, the celebrated monarch 
of Norway, who, rather by the edge of his sword, than 
any milder argument, introduced Christianity into those 
isles, and was respected as the patron of Kirkwall some 
time before he shared that honour with Saint Magnus the 
Martyr. 

It was no part of Cleveland’s purpose to mingle in the 
busy scene which was here going on ; and, turning their 
route to the left, they soon ascended into undisturbed sol- 
itude, save where the grouse, more plentiful in Orkney, 
perhaps, than in any other part of the British dominions, 
RDse in covey, and went off before them.^® Having con- 
tinued to ascend till they had well nigh reached the sum- 
mit of the conical hill, both turned round, as with one 
consent, to look at and admire the prospect beneath. 


132 


THE PIRATE. 


ITie lively bustle which extended between the foot of 
the hill and the town, gave life and variety to that part of 
the scene ; then was seen the town itself, out of which 
arose, like a great mass, superior in proportion as it seemed 
to the whole burgh, the ancient Cathedral of Saint Mag- 
nus, of the heaviest order of Gothic architecture, but 
grand, solemn, and stately, the work of a distant age, and 
of a powerful hand. The quay, with the shipping, lent 
additional vivacity to the scene ; and not only the whole 
beautiful bay, which lies betwixt the promontories of In- 
ganess and Quanterness, at the bottom of which Kirkwall 
is situated, but all the sea, so far as visible, and in par- 
ticular the whole strait betwixt the island of Shapinsha 
and that called Pomona, or the Mainland, was covered 
and enlivened by a variety of boats and small vessels, 
freighted from distant islands to convey passengers or 
merchandize to the Fair of Saint Olla. 

Having attained the point by which this fair and busy 
prospect was most completely commanded, each of the 
strangers, in seaman fashion, had recourse to his spy- 
glass, to assist the naked eye in considering the bay of 
Kirkwall, and the numerous vessels by which it was trav- 
ersed. But the attention of the two companions seemed 
to be arrested by different objects. That of Bunce, or 
Altamont, as he chose to call himself, was riveted to the 
armed sloop, where, conspicuous by her square rigging 
and length of beam, with the English jack and pennon, 
which they had the precaution to keep flying, she lay 
among the merchant vessels, as distinguished from them 
by the trim neatness of her appearance, as a trained sol- 
dier amongst a crowd of clowns. 

“ Yonder she lies,” said Bunce ; “ I wish to God she 
was in the bay of Honduras — you captain, on the quar- 
ter-deck, I your lieutenant, and Fletcher quarter-master, 
and fifty stout fellows under us — 1 should not wish to see 
these blasted heaths and rocks again for a while ! — 
And capta*n you shall soon be. The old brute Goffe gets 
drunk as a lord every day, swaggers, and shoo''^,and cuts 


THE PIRATE. 


133 


among the crew ; and, besides, he has quarrelled w^h the 
people here so damnably, that they will scarce let water 
or provisions go on board of us, and we expect an open 
breach every day.” 

As Bunce received no answer, he turned short round 
on his companion, and, perceiving his attention otherwise 
engaged, exclaimed, — “ What the devil is the matter with 
you ? or what can you see in all that trumpery small-craft, 
which is only loaded with stock-fish and ling, and smoked 
geese, and tubs of butter that is worse than tallow?— the 
cargoes of the whole lumped together would not be worth 
the flash of a pistol. — No, no, give me such a chase as 
we might see from the mast-head off the island of Trin- 
idado. Your Don, rolling as deep in the water as a 
grampus, deep-loaden with rum, sugar, and bales of to- 
bacco, and all the rest ingots, moidores, and gold dust ; 
then set all sail, clear the deck, stand to quarters, up with 
the Jolly Roger* — we near her — ^we make her out to be 
well manned and armed ” 

“ Twenty guns on her lower deck,” said Cleveland. 

“ Forty, if you will,” retorted Bunce, “ and we have 
but ten mounted — never mind. The Don blazes away 
— never mind yet, my brave lads — run her alongside, and 
on board with you — to work, with your grenadoes, your 
cutlasses, pole-axes, and pistols — ^The Don cries Miseri- 
cordia, and we share the cargo without co licencio, Seig^ 
nior /” 

“ By my faith,” said Cleveland, “ thou takestso kindly 
to the trade, that all the world may see that no honest man 
was spoiled when you were made a pirate. But you shall 
not prevail on me to go farther in the devil’s road with 
you ; for you know yourself that what is got over his back 
is spent — you wot how. In a week, or a month at most, 
the rum and the sugar are out, the bales of tobacco have 
become smoke, the moidores, ingots, and gold dust, have 


* The piratesgave this name to the black flag, which, with many horrible d© 
vices to enhance its terrors, was th'‘T favourite ensign. 

VOL. II. 


134 


THE PIRATE. 


got out of our hands, into those of the quiet, honest, con-* 
scientious folks, who dwell at Port Royal and elsewhere 
— wink hard on our trade as long as we have money, but 
not a jot beyond. Then we have cold looks, and it may 
be a hint is given to the Judge Marshal ; for when our 
pockets are worth nothing, our honest friends, rather than 
want, will make money upon our heads. Then comes a 
high gallows and a short halter, and so dies the Gentle- 
man Rover. I tell thee I will leave this trade ; and, when 
I turn my glass from one of these barks and boats to an- 
other, there is not the worst of them which I would not 
row for life, rather than continue to be what I have been. 
These poor men make the sea a means of honest liveli- 
hood and friendly communication between shore and 
shore, for the mutual benefit of the inhabitants ; but we 
have made it a road to the ruin of others, and to our own 
destruction here and in eternity. — I am determined to 
turn honest man, and use this life no longer !” 

“ And where will your honesty take up its abode, if it 
please you ?” said Bunco. — ‘‘ You have broken the laws of 
every nation, and the hand of the law will detect and crush 
you wherever you may take refuge. — Cleveland, I speak 
to you more seriously than I am wont to do. I have had 
my reflections too, and they have been bad enough, though 
they lasted but a few minutes, to spoil me weeks of jovi- 
ality. But here is the matter, — what can we do but go 
on as we have done, unless we have a direct purpose of 
adorning the yard-arm ?” 

“We may claim the benefit of the proclamation to 
those of our sort who come in and surrender,’’ said Cleve- 
land. 

“ Umph !” answered his companion, dryly; “ the date 
of that day of grace has been for some time over, and 
they may take the penalty or grant the pardon at their 
nleasure. Were I you, I would not put my neck in such 
a venture.” 

“ M'hy, others have been admitted but lately to favour 
and why should not I ?” said Cleveland. 


THE PIRATE. 


135 


* Ay,” replied his associate, “ Harry Glasby and some 
others have been spared ; but Glasby did what was called 
good service, in betraying his comrades, and retaking the 
Jolly Fortune ; and that I think you would scorn, even to 
be revenged of the brute GofFe yonder.” 

“ I would die a thousand times sooner,” said Cleve- 
land. 

“ I will be sworn for it,” said Bunce ; “ and the others 
were forecastle fellows— petty-larceny rogues, scarce 
worth the hemp it would have cost to hang them. But 
your name has stood too high amongst the gentlemen of 
fortune for you to get off so easily. You are the prime 
buck of the herd, and will be marked accordingly.” 

“ And why so, I pray you ?” said Cleveland ; “ you 
know well enough my aim. Jack.” 

‘‘ Frederick, if you please,” said Bunce. 

“ The devil take your folly !— Prithee keep thy wit, 
and let us be grave for a moment.” 

For a moment — ^be it so,” said Bunce ; ‘‘ but 1 feel 
the spirit of Altamont coming fast upon me.— I have been 
a grave man for ten minutes already.” 

Be so then for a little longer,” said Cleveland : I 
know. Jack, that you really love me ; and, since we have 
come thus far in this talk, I will trust you entirely. Now 
tell me why should I be refused the benefit of this gra- 
cious proclamation ? I have borne a rough outside, as thou 
knowest ; but, in time of need, I can show thenumbersof 
lives which I have been the means of saving, the property 
which I have restored to those who owned it, when, with- 
out my intercession, it would have been wantonly destroy- 
ed In short, Bunce, I can show ” 

That you were as gentle a thief as Robin Hood him- 
self,” said Bunce ; “ and, for that reason, I, Fletcher, 
and the better sort among us, love you, as one who saves 
the character of us Gentlemen Rovers from utter repro- 
bation. — Well, suppose your pardon made out, what are 
you to do next } — what class in society will receive you ? 
-—with whom will you associate ? — Old Drake, in Queen 
Bess’s time could plunder Peru and Mexico without s 


136 


THE PIRATE. 


line of commission to show for it, and, blessed be hei 
memory! he was knighted for it on his return. And there 
was Hal Morgan, the Welchman, nearer our time, in the 
days of merry King Charles, brought all his gettings home, 
had his estate and his country-house, and who but he? 
But that is all ended now — once a pirate, and an outcast 
for ever. The poor devil may go and live, shunned and 
despised by every one, in some obscure sea-port, with 
such part of his guilty earnings as courtiers and clerks 
leave him — for pardons do not pass the seals for nothing ; 
— and when he takes his walk along the pier, if a stranger 
asks, who is the down-looking, swarthy, melancholy man, 
for whom all make way, as if he brought the plague in 
his person, the answer shall be, that is such a one, the par- 
doned pirate ! — No honest man will speak to him, — no 
woman of repute will give him her hand.” 

“ Your picture is too highly coloured. Jack,” said 
Cleveland, suddenly interrupting his friend ; “ there are 
women — there is one at least, that would be true to hei 
lover, even if he were what you have described.” 

Bunce was silent for a space, and looked fixedly at 
his friend. “ By my soul !” he said, at length, “ I begin 
to think myself a conjuror. Unlikely as it all was, I could 
not help suspecting from the beginning that there was a 
girl in the case. Why, this is worse than Prince Volscius 
in love, ha ! ha ! ha !” 

“ Laugh as you will,” said Cleveland, “ it is true ; — 
there is a maiden who is contented to love me, pirate as I 
am ; and I will fairly owm to you. Jack, that though I 
haveoftenatiimes detested our roving life, and myself for 
following it, yet I doubt if I could have found resolution 
to make the break which I have now resolved on, but for 
her sake.” 

“ Why, then, God-a-mercy !” replied Bunce, “ there 
is no speaking sense to a madman ; and love in one oi 
our trade. Captain, is little better than lunacy. The girl 
mu t be a rare creature, for a wise man to risk hanging 
for her. But, hark ye, may she not be a little touched, 
as well as yourself ? — and is it not sympathy that has done 


THE PIRATE. 


137 


It ? She cannot be one of our ordinary cockatrices, but 
a girl of conduct and character.” 

“ Both are as undoubted as that she is the most beauti 
ful and bewitching creature whom the eye ever opened 
upon,” answered Cleveland. 

“ And she loves thee, knowing thee, most noble Cap 
tain, to be a commander among those gentlemen of fortune 
whom the vulgar call pirates ?” 

“ Even so — I am assured of it,” said Cleveland. 

“ Why, then,” answered Bunce, “ she is either mad in 
good earnest, as I said before, or she does not know whaj 
a pirate is.” 

“ You are right in the last point,” replied Cleveland. 
“ She has been bred in such remote simplicity, and utter 
ignorance of what is evil, that she compares our occupa- 
tion with that of the old Norsemen, who swept sea and 
haven with their victorious galleys, established colonies, 
conquered countries, and took the name of Sea-Kings.” 

‘‘ And a better one it is than that of pirate, and comes 
much to the same purpose, I dare say,” said Bunce. 
“ But this must be a mettled wench ! — why did you not 
bringher aboard.^ methinks it was pity to balk her fancy.” 

“And do you think,” said Cleveland, “ that I could so 
utterly play the part of a fallen spirit as to avail raysell 
of her enthusiastic error, and bring an angel of beauty 
and innocence acquainted with such a hell as exists on 
board of yonder infernal ship of ours ? — I tell you, my 
friend, that, were all my former sins doubled in weight 
and in dye, such a villany would have outglared and out- 
weighed them all.” 

“ Why, then. Captain Cleveland,” said his confidant, 
“ methinks it was but a fool’s part to come hither at all 
The news must one day have gone abroad, that the cele- 
brated pirate Captain Cleveland, with his good sloop the 
Revenge, had been lost on the Mainland of Zetland, and 
all hands perished ; so you would have remained hid both 
from friend and enemy, and might have married your 
pretty Zetlander, and converted your sash and scarf into 

VOL. II 


.i 


138 


THE PIRATE. 


fishing-nets, and your cutlass into a harpoon, and swe])t 
the seas for fish instead of florins.” 

“ And so I had determined,” said the captain ; “ but 
a jagger, as they call them here, like a meddling, peddling 
thief as he is, brought down intelligence to Zetland of 
your lying here, and I was fain to set off, to see if you 
were the consort of whom I had told them, long before I 
thought of leaving the roving trade.” 

“ Ay,” said Bunce, “ and so far you judged well. For 
as you had heard of our being at Kirkwall, so we should 
have soon learned that you were at Zetland ; and some 
of us for friendship, some for hatred, and some for fear 
of your playing Harry Glasby upon us, would have come 
down for the purpose of getting you into our company 
again.” 

“ I suspected as much,” said the captain, “ and there- 
fore was fain to decline the courteous offer of a friend, 
who proposed to bring me here about this time. Be 
sides. Jack, I recollected, that, as you say, my pardon 
will not pass the seals without money, my own was wax- 
ing low — no wonder, thou knowest I was never a churl 
of it — And so ” 

“ And so you came for your share of the cobs ?” re- 
plied his friend— “ It was wisely done ; and we shared 
honourably — so far Goffe has acted up to articles, it must 
be allowed. But keep your purpose of leaving him close 
in your breast, for I dread his playing you some dog’s 
trick or other ; for he certainly thought himself sure ol 
your share, and will hardly forgive your coming alive to 
disappoint him.” 

“ I fear him not,” said Cleveland, ‘‘ and he knows that 
well. I would I were as well clear of the consequences 
of having been his comrade, as I hold myself to be of all 
Uiose which may attend his ill-will. Another unhapcy 
job I may be troubled with — I hurt a young fellow, wno 
has been my plague for some time, in an unhappy braw' 
that chanced the morning I left Zetland.” 

“ Is he dead ?” asked Bunce : “ It is a more serious 
<[uestion here, than it would be on the Grand Caimains, or 


THE PIRATE. 


139 


ihe Bahama Isles, where a brace or two of fellows 
may be shot in a morning, and no more heard of, cr asked 
about them, than if they were so many wood-pigeons. 
But here, it may be otherwise ; so I hope you have not 
made your friend immortal.” 

“ I hope not,” said the captain, ‘‘ though my anger 
has been fatal to those who have given me less provoca- 
tion. To say the truth, I was sorry for the lad notwith- 
standing, and especially as I was forced to leave him in 
mad keeping,” 

“ In mad keeping ?” said Bunce ; “ why, what means 
that?” 

“ You shall hear,” replied his friend. “ In the first 
place, you are to know, this young man came suddenly on 
me while I was trying to gain Minna’s ear, for a private 
interview before I set sail, that I might explain my pur- 
pose to her. Now to be broken in on by the accursed 
rudeness of this young fellow at such a moment ” 

“ The interruption deserved death,” said Bunce, “ by 
all the laws of love and honour !” 

“ A truce with your ends of plays. Jack, and listen one 
moment. — The brisk youth thought proper to retort, when 
I commanded him to be gone. I am not, thou knowest, 
very patient, and enforced my commands with a blow, 
which he returned as roundly. We struggled, till I be- 
came desirous that we should part at any rate, which I 
could only effect by a stroke of my poniard, which, ac- 
cording to old use, 1 have, thou knowest, always about me. 
1 had scarce done this when I repented ; but there was no 
time to think of any thing save escape and concealment, 
for, if the house rose on me, I was lost ; as the fiery old 
man, who is head of the family, would have done justice 
on me had I been his brother. I took the body hastily on 
my shoulders to carry it down to the sea-shore, with the 
purpore of throwing it into a riva^ as they call them, or 
chasm of great depth, where it would have been long 
enough in being discovered. This done, I intended to 
jump into the boat which I had lying ready, and set sail for 
kirkvvall. But as I was walking hastily towards the beach 


140 


THE PIRATE 


With my burden, the poor young felbw groaned, and so 
apprized me that the wound had not been instantly fatal 
I was by this time well concealed amongst the rocks, and, 
far from desiring to complete my crime, I laid the young 
man on the ground, and was doing what I could to stanch 
the blood, when suddenly an old woman stood before me. 
She was a person whom I had frequently seen while in 
Zetland, and to whom they ascribe the character of a 
sorceress, or, as the negroes say, an Obi woman. She 
demanded the wounded man of me, and I was too much 
pressed for time to hesitate in complying with her request. 
More she was about to say to me, when we heard the voice 
of a silly old man, belonging to the family, singing at some 
distance. She then pressed her finger on her lip as a 
sign of secrecy, whistled very low, and, a shapeless, de- 
formed brute of a dwarf coming to her assistance, they 
carried the wounded man into one of the caverns with 
which the place abounds, and I got to my boat and to sea 
with all expedition. If that old hag be, as they say, con- 
nected with the King of the Air, she favoured me that 
morning with a turn of her calling ; for not even the West 
Indian tornadoes, which we have weathered together, 
made a wilder racket than the squall that drove me so far 
out of our course, that, without a pocket-compass, which 
I chanced to have about me, I should never have recov- 
ered the Fair Isle, for which we run, and where I found 
a brig which brought me to this place. But, whether the 
old woman meant me weal or wo, here we came at length 
in safety from the sea, and here I remain in doubts 
and difficulties of more kinds than one.” 

“ O the devil take the Sumburgh-head,” said Bunce, 

or whatever they call the rock that yov knocked oui 
clever little Revenge against !” 

“ Do not say I knocked her on the rock, ' said Cleve- 
land ; “ have I not told you fifty times, if the cowards 
had not taken to their boat, though I showed them the 
danger, and told them they would all be swampefe, which 
happened che instant they cast off the painter, she would 
nave bee afloat at this moment ? Had they stood by me 


THE PIRATE. 


141 


and the ship, their lives would have been saved ; had I 
gone with them, mine would have been lost ; who can say 
which is for the best ?” 

“ Well;” replied his friend, “ I know your case now, 
and can the better help and advise. I will be true to you, 
Clement, as the blade to the hilt ; but 1 cannot think iliat 
you should leave us. As the old Scottish song says, 
‘ Waes my heart that we should sunder!’ — But come, 
you will aboard with us to-day, at any rate ?” 

“ I have no other place of refuge,” said Cleveland, 
with a sigh. 

He then once more ran his eyes over the bay, directing 
his spy-glass upon several of the vessels which traversed 
Its surface, in hopes, doubtless, of discerning the vessel 
of Magnus Troil, and then followed his companion down 
the hill in silence 


CHAPTER XII. 

I strive like to the vessel in the tide-way, 

Which, lacking favouring breeze, hath not the power 
To stem the powerful current. — Even so, 

Resolving daily to forsake my vices. 

Habit, strong circumstance, renew'd temptation. 

Sweep me to sea again. — O heavenly breath. 

Fill thou my sails, and aid the feeble vessel, 

Which ne’er can reach the blessed port without thee ! 

' Tis Odds when Evens meet. 

Cleveland, with his friend Bunce, descended the 
bill for a time in silence, until at length the latter renewed 
their conversation. 

“ You have taken this fellow’s wound more on your 
conscience than you need. Captain — I have known you 
do more, and think less on’t.” 

“ Noton such slight provocation. Jack,” replied Cleve- 
land. ‘‘ Besides, the lad saved my life ; and, sav that I 


142 


THE PIRATE. 


requited him the favour, still we should not have met on 
such evil terms ; but I trust that he may receive aid from 
that woman, who has certainly strange skill in simples.” 

‘‘ And over simpletons. Captain,” said his friend, “ in 
which class I must e’en put you down, if you think more 
on this subject. That you should be made a fool of 
by a young woman, why, it is many an honest man’s case ; 
— but to puzzle your pate about the mummeries of an old 
one, is far too great a folly to indulge a friend in. Talk 
to me of your Minna, since you so call her, as much as 
you will ; but you have no title to trouble your faithful 
squire-errant with your old mumping magician. And now 
here we are once more amongst the booths and tents, 
which these good folk are pitching — let us look, and see 
whether we may not find some fun and frolic amongst 
them. In merry England, now, you would have seen, on 
such an occasion, two or three bands of strollers, as many 
fire-eaters and conjurors, as many shows of wild beasts ; 
but, amongst these grave folk, there is nothing but what 
savours of business and of commodity — no, not so much 
as a single squall from my merry gossip Punch and his 
rib Joan.” 

As Bunce thus spoke, Cleveland cast his eyes on some 
very gay clothes, which, with other articles, hung out up- 
on one of the booths, that had a good deal more of orna- 
ment and exterior decoration than the rest. There was 
in front a small sign of canvas painted, announcing the 
variety of goods which the owner of the booth, Bryce 
Snailsfoot, had on sale, and the reasonable prices at 
wliich he proposed to offer them to the public. For the 
farther gratification of the spectator, the sign bore on the 
opposite side an emblematic device, resembling our first 
parents in their vegetable garments, with this legend — 


" Poor sinners whom the snake deceives, 
Are fain to cover them with leaves. 
Zetland hath no leaves, Ms true, 
Because that trees are none, or few ; 

But we have flax and tails of woo 
For linen cloth and wadmaal blue : 


THE riRATE. 


143 


And we have many of foreign knacks 
Of finer waft, than woo’ or flax. 

Ye gallanly Lambmas lads,* appear. 

And bring your Lambmas sisters here, 

Bryce Snailsfoot spares not cost or care. 

To pleasure every gentle pair.” 

While Cleveland was perusing these goodly rhymes, 
which brought to his mind Claud Halcro, to whom, as the 
poet-laureat of the island, ready with his talent alike in 
the service of the great and small, they probably owed 
their origin, the worthy proprietor of the booth, having 
cast his eye upon him, began with hasty and trembling 
hand to remove some of the garments, which, as the sale 
did not commence till the ensuing day, he had exposed 
either for the purpose of airing them, or to excite the ad- 
miration of the spectators. 

“ By my word. Captain,” whispered Bunce to Cleve- 
land, “ you must have had that fellow under your clutches 
one day, and he remembers one gripe of your talons, and 
fears another. See how fast he is packing his wares out 
of sight so soon as he set eyes on you.” 

“ His wares !” said Cleveland, on looking more atten- 
tively at his proceedings ; “ By heaven, they are my 
clothes which I left in a chest at Jarlshof when the Re- 
venge was lost there. — Why, Bryce Snailsfoot, thou thief, 
dog, and villain, what means this } Have you not made 
enough of us by cheap buying and dear selling, that you 
have seized on my trunk and wearing apparel ?” 

Bryce Snailsfoot, who probably would otherwise not 
have been willing to see his friend the Captain, was now 
by the vivacity of his attack obliged to pay attention to 
him. He first whispered to his little foot-page, by whom, 
as we have already noticed, he was usually attended, 

Run to the town-council-house, Jarto, and tell the pro- 


* It was anciently a custom at Sai.nt Olla’s Fair at Kirkwall, that the young 
people of the lower class, and of either sex, associated in pairs for the period ol 
ihe Fair, during which the couple were termed Lambnias brother and sister. 
It is easy to conceive that the exclusive familiarity arising out of this custom 
was ijahle to abuse, the rather that it is said little scandal was attached to tha 
•udiscretions which it occasioned. 


144 


THE PIRATE. 


rost and baillies they maun send some of their officers 
speedily, for here is like to be wild wark in the fair.” 

So having said, and having seconded his commands b} 
a push on the shoulder of his messenger, which sent him 
spinning out of the shop as fast as heels could carry him, 
Bryce Snailsfoot turned to his old acquaintance, and with 
that amplification of words and exaggeration of manner, 
which in Scotland is called ‘ making a phrase,’ he ejacu- 
lated — “ The Lord be gude to us ! the worthy Captain 
Cleveland, that we were all sae grieved about, returned to 
relieve our hearts again ! Wat have my cheeks been for 
you, (here Bryce wiped his eyes,) and blithe am I now 
to see you restored to your sorrowing friends!” 

“ My sorrowing friends, you rascal !” said Cleveland ; 
“ I will give you better cause for sorrow than ever you 
had on my account, if you do not tell me instantly where 
you stole all my clothes.” 

“ Stole !” ejaculated Bryce, casting up his eyes ; now 
the powers be gude to us I — the poor gentleman has lost 
his reason in that weary gale of wind.” 

“ Why, you insolent rascal !” said Cleveland, grasping 
the cane which he carried, “ do you think to bamboozle 
me with your impudence ? As you would have a whole 
head on your shoulders, and your bones in a whole skin 
one minute longer, tell me where the devil you stole my 
wearing apparel?” 

Bryce Snailsfoot ejaculated once more a repetition ot 
the word “ Stole ! Now Heaven be gude to us !” but at 
the same time, conscious that the Captain was likely to be 
sudden in execution, cast an anxious look to the town, 
to see the loitering aid of the civil power advance to his 
rescue, 

“ I insist on an instant answer,” said the Captain, with 
upraised weapon, “ or else I swill beat you to a mummy, 
^nd throw out all your frippery upon the common.” 

Meanwhile, Master John Bunce, who considered the 
whole affair as an excellent good jest, and not the worse 
one that it made Cleveland very angry, seized hold of the 
Captain’s arm, and, without any idea of ultimately *pr6- 


THE PIRATE. 


145 


venting him from executing his threats, interfered just so 
much as was necessary to protract a discussion so amusing. 

‘‘ Nay, let the honest man speak,” he said, “ messmate ; 
he has as fine a cozening face as ever stood on a knavish 
pair of shoulders, and his are the true flourishes of elo- 
quence, in the course of which men snip the cloth an 
inch too short. Now, I wish you to consider that you are 
both of a trade, — he measures bales by the yard, and yon 
by the sword, — and so I will not have him chopp’d up till 
he has had a fair chase.” 

“ You are a fool !” said Cleveland, endeavouring to 
shake his friend off. — “ Let me go ; for, by heaven, I 
will be foul of him '” 

“ Hold him fast,” said the pedlar, “ good dear merry 
gentleman, hold him fast !” 

“ Then say something for yourself,” said Bunce ; “ use 
your gob-box, man ; patter away, or, by my soul, I will 
let him loose on you !” 

“ He says I stole these goods,” said Bryce, who now 
saw himself run so close, that pleading to the charge be- 
came inevitable. ‘‘ Now, how could I steal them, when 
they are mine by fair and lawful purchase ?” 

“ Purchase ! you beggarly vagrant !” said Cleveland , 
“ from whom did you dare to buy my clothes ? or who 
had the impudence to sell them 

“ Just that worthy professor Mrs. Swertha, the house- 
keeper at Jarlshof, who acted as your executor,” said the 
pedlar ; “ and a grieved heart she had.” 

“ And so she was resolved to make a heavy pocket oi 
it, I suppose,” said the Captain ; “ but how did she dare 
to sell the things left in her charge 

“ Why, she acted all for the best, good woman !” said 
the pedlar, anxious to protract the discussion until the 
arrival of succours ; “ and, if you will but hear reason, 
I arn ready to account with you for the chest and all that 
it holds.” 

“ Speak out then, and let us have none of thy damn- 
able evasions,” said Captain Cleveland ; “ if you show 

VOL. II 


H6 


THE PIRATE. 


ever so little purpose of being somewhat honest for oiico 
in thy life, I will not beat thee.” 

“ Why, you see, noble Captain,” said the pedlar, — and 
then muttered to himself, “ plague on Pate Paterson’s 
cripple knee, they will be waiting for him, hirpling, useless 
body !” then resumed aloud — “ The country, you see, is 
in great perplexity, — great perplexity indeed, — much per- 
plexity truly. There was your honour missing, that was 
loved by great and small — clean missing — nowhere to be 
heard of — a lost man — uraquhile — dead — defunct!” 

“ You shall find me alive to your cost, you scoundrel !” 
said the irritated Captain. 

“ Weel, but take patience, — ye will not hear a body 
speak,” said the jagger. — “ Then there was the lad Mor- 
daunt Mertoun ” 

“ Ha !” said the Captain, “ What of him ?” 

“ Cannot be heard of,” said the pedlar ; “ clean and 
clear tint, a gone youth ; fallen, it is thought, from the 
craig into the sea — he was aye venturous. I have had 
dealings with him for furs and feathers, whilk he swapped 
against powder and shot, and the like ; and now he has 
worn out from among us — clean retired — utterly vanish- 
ed, like the last puff of an auld wife’s tobacco pipe.” 

“ But what is all this to the Captain’s clothes, my dear 
friend ?” said Bunce ; “ I must presently beat you my- 
self unless you come to the point.” 

“ W eel, weel, — patience, patience,” said Bryce, wav- 
ing his hand ; “ you will get all time enough. Weel, there 
are two folks gane, as I said, forby the distress at Burgh- 
W^estra about Mistress Minna’s sad ailment ” 

“ Bring not her into your buffoonery, sirrah,” said 
Cleveland, in a tone of anger, not so loud, but far deeper 
and more concentrated than he had hitherto used ; “ for, 
if you name her with less than reverence, I will crop the 
ears out of your head, and make you swallow them on 
the spot !” 

“ He, he, he !” faintly laughed the jagger ; ‘‘ that were 
a pleasant jest ! you are pleased to be witty. But to 
sae naething of Burgh-Westra, there is the carle at Jarl- 


THE PIRATE. 


147 


shof, he that was the auld Mertoun, Mordaunt’s father, 
whom men thought as fast bound to the place he dwelt in 
as the Sumburgh-head itsell, naething maun serve him 
but he is lost as weel as the lave about whom I have 
spoken. And there’s Magnus Troil, (wi’ favour be he 
named,) taking horse ; and there is pleasant Maister Claud 
Halcro taking boat, whilk he steers worst of any man in 
Zetland, his head running on rambling rhymes ; and the 
Factor body is on the stir — the Scots Factor, — him that 
is aye speaking of dikes and delving, and such unprofita- 
ble wark, which has naething of merchandize in it, and 
he is on the lang trot too ; so that ye might say, upon a 
manner, the tae half of the mainland of Zetland is lost, 
and the other is running to and fro seeking it — awfu’ 
times !” 

Captain Cleveland had subdued his passion, and listen- 
ed to this tirade of the worthy man of merchandize, with 
impatience indeed, yet not without the hope of hearing 
something that might concern him. But his companion 
was now become impatient in his turn : — “ The clothes !” 
he exclaimed, “ the clothes, the clothes, the clothes !” 
accompanying each repetition of the words with a flourish 
of his cane, the dexterity of which consisted in coming 
mighty near the jagger’s ears without actually touching 
them. 

The jagger, shrinking from each of these demonstra- 
tions, continued to exclaim, “ Jfay, sir — good sir — wor- 
thy sir — for the clothes — 1 found the worthy dame in great 
distress on account of her old maister, and on account of 
her young maister, and on account of worthy Captain 
Cleveland ; and because of the distress of the worthy 
Fowd’s family, and the trouble of the great Fowd him- 
self, — and because of the Factor, and in respect of Claud 
Halcro, and on other accounts .^and respects. Also we 
mingled our sorrows and our tears with a bottle, as the 
holy text hath it, and called in the ranzelman to our coun- 
cil, a worthy man, Neil Ronaldson by name, who hath a 
good reputation.” 


148 


THE PIRATE. 


Here another flourish of the cane came so very neai 
that it partly touched his ear. The jagger started back, 
and the truth, or that which he desired should be consid- 
ered as such, bolted from him without more circumlocu- 
tion ; as a cork, after much unnecessary buzzing and 
fizzing, springs forth from a bottle of spruce beer. 

“ In brief, what the deil mair would you have of it ? — 
the woman sold me the kist of clothes — they are mine by 
purchase, and that is what I will live and die upon.” 

“ In other words,” said Cleveland, “ this greedy old 
hag had the impudence to sell what was none of hers ; 
and you, honest Bryce Snailsfoot, had the assurance to 
be the purchaser.” 

“ Ou dear, Captain,” said the conscientious pedlar, 
“ what wad ye hae had twa poor folk to do ? There was 
yoursell gane that aught the things, and Maister Mordaunt 
was gane that had them in keeping, and the things were 
but damply put up, where they were rotting with moth 
and mould, and ” 

And so this old thief sold them, and you bought 
them, I suppose, just to keep them from spoiling?” said 
Cleveland. 

“ Weel then,” said the merchant, ‘‘ I’m thinking, noble 
Captain, that wad be just the gate of it.” 

“ Well then, hark ye, you impudent scoundrel,” said 
the Captain. “ I do not wish to dirty my fingers with 
you, or to make any disturbance in this place ” 

“ Good reason for that," Captain — aha !” said the ias;- 
ger, slyly. 

“ I will break your bones if you speak another word,” 
replied Cleveland. ‘‘ Take notice — I offer you fair 
terms — give me back the black leathern pocket-book 
with the lock upon it, and the purse with the doubloons^ 
with some few of the clodies I want, and keep the rest in 
the devil’s namej^^' 'HT 

“ Doubloons ! ! — exclaimed the jagger, with an ex- 
altation of voice intended to indicate the utmost extrem- 
ity of surprise, — “ what do I ken of doublocns ? m;y 
dealing was for doublets, and not for doubloons — If there 


THE PIRATE. 


149 


were doubloons in the kist, doubtless Swertha will have 
them in safe keeping for your honour — the damp wouldna 
harm the gold, ye ken.” 

“ Give me back my pocket-book and my goods, you 
rascally thief,” said Cleveland, ‘‘ or without a word more 
I will beat your brains out !” 

The wily jagger, casting eye around him, saw that 
succour was near, in the shape of a party of officers, six 
in number ; for several rencontres with the crew of the 
pirate had taught the magistrates of Kirkwall to strengthen 
their police parties when these strangers were in question. 

“Ye had better keep the thief to suit yoursell, hon- 
oured Captain,” said the jagger, emboldened by the ap- 
proach of the civil power ; “ for wha kens how a’ these 
tine goods and bonny-dies were come by ?” 

This was uttered with such provoking slyness of look 
and tone, that Cleveland made no farther delay, but, seiz- 
ing upon the jagger by the collar, dragged him over his 
temporary counter, which was, with all the goods display- 
ed thereon, overset in the scuffle ; and, holding him with 
one hand, inflicted on him with the other a severe beating 
with his cane. All this was done so suddenly and with 
such energy, that Bryce Snailsfoot, though rather a stout 
man, was totally surprised by the vivacity of the attack, 
and made scarce any other effort at extricating himsell 
than by roaring for assistance like a bull-calf. The “ loi- 
tering aid” having at length come up, the officers made an 
effort to seize on Cleveland, and by their united exertions 
succeeded in compelling him to quit hold of the pedlar, 
in order to defend himself from their assault. This he 
did with infinite strength, resolution, and dexterity, being 
\it the same time well seconded by his friend Jack Bunce, 
who had seen with glee the drubbing sustained by 
the pedlar, and now combated tightly to save his com- 
panion from the consequences. But, as there had been 
for some time a growing feud between the town’s people 
and the crew of the Rover, the former, provoked by the 
insolent deportment of the seamen, had resolved to stand 

VOL. II. 


J50 


THE PIRATE. 


by each other, and to aid the civil power upon such oc- 
casions of riot as should occur in future ; and so many 
assistants came up to the rescue of the constables, that 
Cleveland, after fighting most manfully, was at length 
brought to the ground and made prisoner. His more for- 
tunate companion had escaped by speed of foot, as soon 
as he saw that the day must needs be determined against 
them. 

The proud heart of Cleveland, which, even in its per- 
version, had in its feelings something of original noble- 
ness, was like to burst, when he felt himself borne down 
in this unworthy brawl — dragged into the town as a pris- 
oner, and hurried through the streets towards the council- 
house, where the magistrates of the burgh were then 
seated in council. The probability of imprisonment, with 
all its consequences, rushed also upon his mind, and he 
cuised an hundred times the folly which had not rather 
submitted to the pedlar’s knavery, than involved him in 
so perilous an embarrassment. 

But, just as they approached the door of the council- 
house, which is situated in the middle of the little town, 
the face of matters was suddenly changed by a new and 
unexpected incident. 

Bunce, who had designed, by his precipitate retreat, to 
serve as well his friend as himself, had hied him to the 
haven, where the boat of the Rover was then lying, and 
called the coxswain and boat’s crew to the assistance of 
Cleveland. They now appeared on the scene — fierce 
desperadoes, as became their calling, with features bron- 
zed by the tropical sun under which they had pursued it. 
They rushed at once amongst the crowd, laying about 
them with their stretchers ; and, forcing their way up to 
Cleveland, speedily delivered him from the hands of the 
officers, who were totally unprepared to resist an attack 
BO furious and so sudden, and carried him off in triumph 
towards the quay, — two or three of their number facing 
about from time to time to keep back the crowd, whose 
efforts to recover the prisoner were the less violent, that 
most of the seamen were armed with pistols and cutlas- 


THE PIRATE. 


151 


ses, as well as with the less lethal weapons which alone 
they had as yet made use of. 

They gained their boat in safety, and jumped into it 
carrying along with them Cleveland, to whom circum- 
stances seemed to offer no other refuge, and pushed oil 
for their vessel, singing in chorus to their oars an old ditty, 
of which the natives of Kirkwall could only hear the first 
stanza : — 


* Robin Rover 
Said to his crew, 

Up with the black flag, 

Down with the blue ! — 

Fire on the main-top. 

Fire on the bow. 

Fire on the gun-deck. 

Fire down below.’ ” 

The Wild chorus of their voices was heard long after 
the words ceased to be intelligible. — And thus was the 
pirate Cleveland again thrown almost involuntarily amongst 
those desperate associates, from whom he had so often 
resolved to detach himself. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

Parental love, my friend, has power o’er wisdom. 

And is the charm, which, like the falconer's lure. 

Can bring from heaven the highest soaring spirits. — 

So, when famed Prosper doff’d his magic robe. 

It was Miranda pluck’d it from his shoulders. 

Old Play. 

Our wandering narrative must now return to Mordaum 
Mertoun. — We left him in the perilous condition of one 
who has received a severe wound, and we now find him 
m the condition of a convalescent — pale, indeed, and fee- 
ble, from the loss of much blood, and the effects of a 


THE PIRATE. 


ir>2 

fever which had followed the injury, but so far fortu* 
nate, that the weapon, having glanced on the ribs, had 
only occasioned a great effusion of blood, without touch 
ing any vital part, and was now well nigh healed ; sc 
efficacious were the vulnerary plants and salves with which 
it had been treated by the sage Norna of Fitful-head. 

The matron and her patient now sat together in a dwel- 
ling in a remote island. He had been transported, dur- 
ing his illness, and ere he had perfect consciousness, first 
to her singular habitation near Fitful-heiad, and thence to 
her present abode, by one of the fishing-boats on the 
station of Burgh-Westra. For such was the command 
possessed by Norna over the superstitious character of 
her countrymen, that she never failed to find faithful agents 
to execute her commands, whatever these happened to 
be ; and, as her orders were generally given under in- 
junctions of the strictest secrecy, mren reciprocally won- 
dered at occurrences, which had in fact been produced 
by their own agency, and that of their neighbours, and in 
which, had they communicated freely with each other, no 
shadow of the marvellous would have remained. 

Mordaunt was now seated by the fire, in an apartment 
indifferently well furnished, having a book in his hand, 
which he looked upon from time to time with signs of en- 
nui and impatience ; feelings which at length so far over- 
came him, that, flinging the volume on the table, he fixed 
his eyes on the fire, and assumed the attitude of one who 
is engaged in unpleasant meditation. 

Norna, who sat opposite to him, and appeared busy in 
the composition of some drug or unguent, anxiously left 
her seat, and, approaching Mordaunt, felt his pulse, mak- 
ing at the same time the most affectionate inquiries wheth- 
er he felt any sudden pain, and where it was seated. The 
manner in which Mordaunt replied to these earnest in- 
quiries, although worded so as to express gratitude for hei 
kindness, while he disclaimed any feeling of indisposition, 
did not seem to give satisfaction to the Pythoness.” 

“ Ungrateful boy !” sbe said, “ for whom J have done 
fio much ; you, whom I have rescued, by my power and 


THE PIRATE. 


153 


Bkill, from the very gates of death, — are you already so 
weary of me, that you cannot refrain from showing how 
desirous you are to spend, at a distance from me, ihe 
very first intelligent days of the life which I have restored 
you ?” 

You do me injustice, my kind preserver,” replied 
Mordaunt ; “ I am not tired of your society ; but I have 
duties which recall me to ordinary life.” 

“ Duties !” repeated Norna ; ‘‘ and what duties can 
or ought to interfere with the gratitude which you owe to 
me ? — Duties ! your thoughts are on the use of your gun, 
or on clambering among the rocks in quest of sea-fowl. 
For these exercises your strength doth not yet fit you ; 
and yet these are the duties to which you are so anxious 
to return !” 

“ Not so, my good and kind mistress,” said Mordaunt. 
— “ To name one (^ty, out of many, which- makes me 
seek to leave you, now that my strength permits, let me 
mention that of a son to his father.” 

“ To your father !” said Norna, with a laugh that 
had something in it almost frantic. “ O ! you know not 
how we can, in these islands, at once cancel such du- 
ties ! And, for your father,” she added, proceeding more 
calmly, “ what has he done for you, to deserve the re- 
gard and duty you speak of? — Is he not the same, who, 
as you have long since told me, left you for so many years 
poorly nourished, among strangers, without inquiring 
whether you were alive or dead, and only sending, from 
time to time, supplies in such fashion, as men relieve the 
leprous wretch to whom they fling alms from a distance ? 
And, in these later years, when he had made you the com- 
panion of his misery, he has been, by starts your peda- 
gogue, by starts your tormentor, but never, Mordaunt, 
never your father.” 

“ Something of truth there is in what you say,” repli- 
ed Mordaunt : my father is not fond ; but he is, and 
has ever been, effectively kind. Men have not their af- 
fections in their power ; and it is a child’s duty to be 
grateful for the benefits which he receives, even when 


154 


THE PIRATE. 


coldly bestowed. My father has conferred instruction on 
me, and 1 am convinced he loves me. He is unfortunate ; 
and, even if he loved me not ’’ 

“ And he does 7iot love you,” said Norna, hastily ; 
“ he never loved any thing, or any one, save himself 
He is unfortunate, but well are his misfortunes deserved. 
— O Mordaunt, you have one parent only,- — one parent, 
who loves you as the drops of the heart-blood !” 

‘‘ I know I have but one parent,” replied Mordaunt ; 
‘‘ my mother has been long dead. — But your words con- 
tradict each other.” 

“ They do not — they do not,” said Norna, in a parox- 
ysm of the deepest feeling ; “ you have but one parent. 
Your unhappy mother is not dead — I would to God that 
she were ! but she is not dead. Thy mother is the only 
parent that loves thee j and I — I, Mordaunt,” throwing 
herself on his neck, ‘‘ am that most unhappy — yet most 
happy mother.” 

She closed him in a strict and convulsive embrace ; 
and tears, the first, perhaps, which she had shed for many 
years, burst in torrents as she sobbed on his neck. As- 
tonished at what he heard, felt, and saw, — moved by the 
excess of her agitation, yet disposed to ascribe this burst 
of passion to insanity, — Mordaunt vainly endeavoured to 
tranquillize the mind of this extraordinary person. 

‘‘ Ungrateful boy !” she said, “ who but a mother 
would have watched over thee as I have watched ? From 
the instant I saw thy father, when he little thought by whom 
he was observed, a space now many years back, I knew 
him well ; and, under his charge, I saw you, then a strip- 
ling, — while Nature, speaking loud in my bosom, assured 
me, thou wert blood of my blood, and bone of my bone. 
Think how often you have wondered to see me, when 
least expected, in your places of pastime and resort ! 
Think how often my eye has watched you on the giddy 
precipices, and muttered those charms which subdue the 
evil demons, who show themselves to the climber on the 
giddiest point of his path, and force him to quit his hold 1 
Did I not hang around thy neck, in pledge of thy safety 


THE PIRATE. 


T65 


that chain of gold, which an Elfin King gave to the founder 
of our race ? Would I have given that dear gift to any 
but to the son of my bosom ? — Mordaum, my power has 
done that for thee that a mere mortal mother would dread 
to think of. I have conjured the Mermaid at midnight, 
that thy bark might be prosperous on the haaf ! I have 
husiied the winds, and navies have flapped their empt}' 
sails against the mast in inactivity, that you might safely 
indulge your sport upon the crags !” 

Mordaunt, perceiving that she was growing yet wilder 
in her talk, endeavoured to frame an answer which should 
be at once indulgent, soothing, and calculated to allay the 
rising warmth of her imagination. 

‘‘ Dear Norna,” he said, ‘‘ I have indeed many reasons 
to call you mother, who have bestowed so many benefits 
upon me ; and from me you shall ever receive the affec- 
tion and duty of a child. But the chain you mentioned. 
It has vanished from my neck, — I have not seen it since 
the ruffian stabbed me.” 

“ Alas ! and can you think of it at this moment ?” said 
Norna, in a sorrowful accent. — “ But be it so : — and 
know, it was I took it from thy neck, and tied it around the 
neck of her who is dearest to you ; in token that the 
union betwixt you, which has been the only earthly wish 
which I have had the power to form, shall yet, even yet, 
be accomplished — ay, although hell should open to forbid 
the bans !” 

“ Alas !” said Mordaunt, with a sigh, “ you remember 
not the difference betwixt our situation — Her father is 
wealthy, and of ancient birth.” 

“ Not more wealthy than will be the heir of Norna ol 
Fitful-head,” answered the Pythoness — “ not of better 
or more ancient blood than that which flows in thy veins, 
derived from thy mother, the descendant of the same 
Jarls and Sea-Kings from whom Magnus boasts his origin. 
—Or dost thou think, like the pedant and fanatic strang- 
ers who have come amongst us, that thy blood is dishon- 
oured because my union with thy father did not receive 
ihe sanction of a priest ? — Know, that we were wedded 
19 


156 


TUB PIRATE. 


after the ancient manner of the Norse — our hands were 
clasped within the circle of OdinJ^with such deep vows 
of eternal fidelity, as even the laws of these usurping 
Scots would have sanctioned as equivalent to a blessing 
before the altar. To the offspring of such a union, Mag- 
nus has nought to object. It was weak, it was criminal 
on my part, but it conveyed no infamy to the birth of my 
son.” 

The composed and collected manner in which Norna 
argued these points began to impose upon Mordaunt an 
incipient belief in the truth of what she said ; and, indeed, 
she added so many circumstances, satisfactorily and ra- 
tionally connected with each other, as seemed to confute 
the notion that her story was altogether the delusion of 
that insanity which sometimes showed itself in her speech 
and actions. A thousand confused ideas rushed upon 
him, when he supposed it possible that the unhappy per- 
son before him might actually have a right to claim from 
him the respect and affection due to a parent from a son. 
He could only surmount them by turning his mind to a 
different, and scarce less interesting topic, resolving with- 
in himself to take time for farther inquiry and mature 
consideration, ere he either rejected or admitted the claim 
which Norna preferred upon his affection and duty. His 
benefactress at least, she undoubtedly was, and he could 
not err in paying her, as such, the respect and attention 
due from a son to a mother ; and so far, therefore, be 
might gratify Norna without otherwise standing com- 
mitted. 

“ And do you then really think, my mother, — ^since so 
you bid me term you,”— said Mordaunt, “ that the proud 
Magnus Troil may, by any inducement, be prevailed upon 
to relinquish the angry feelings which he has of late 
adopted towards me, and to permit my addresses to his 
daughter Brenda ?” 

“ Brenda ?” repeated Norna — “ who talks of Brenda? 
-it was of Minna that I spoke to you.” 


THE PIRATE. 


157 


“ But it was of Brenda that I thought,” replied Mor- 
daunt, “ of her that I now think, and of her alone that 
1 will ever think.” 

“ Impossible, my son !” replied Norna. “ You can- 
not be so dull of heart, so poor of spirit, as to prefer the 
idle mirth and housewife simplicity of the younger sister, 
to the deep feeling and high mind of the noble-spirited 
Minna ? Who would stoop to gather the lowly violet, that 
rnight have the rose for stretching out his hand ?” 

“ Some think the lowliest flowers are the sweetest,” 
replied Mordaunt, “ and in that faith will I live and die.” 

“ You dare not tell me so,” answered Norna, fierce- 
ly ; then, instantly changing her tone, and taking his hand 
in the most affectionate manner, she proceeded : — “ You 
must not — you will not tell me so, my dear son — you will 
not break a mother’s heart in the very first hour in which 
she has embraced her child ! — Nay, do not answer, but 
hear me. You must w^ed Minna — I have bound around 
her neck a fatal amulet, on which the happiness of both 
depends. The labours of my life have for years had this 
direction. Thus it ’ must be, and not otherwise — Minna 
must be the bride of my son !” 

‘‘ But is not Brenda equally near, equally dear to you ?” 
replied Mordaunt. 

‘‘ As near in blood,” said Norna, “ but not so dear, 
no, not half so dear, in affection. Minna’s mild, yet high 
and contemplative spirit, renders her a companion meet 
for one, whose ways, like mine, are beyond the ordinary 
paths of this world. Brenda is a thing of common and 
ordinary life, an idle laugher and scoffer, who would level 
art with ignorance, and reduce power to weakness, by 
disbelieving and turning into ridicule whatever is beyond 
the grasp of her own shallow intellect.” 

“ She is, indeed,” answered Mordaunt, “ neither su- 
perstitious nor enthusiastic, and I love her the better for 
it. Remember also, my mother, that she returns my 
affection, and that Minna, if she loves any one, loves the 
stranger Cleveland.” 


VOL. II. 


158 


THE PIRATE. 


“ She does not — she dares not,” answered Ncrna 
nor dares he pursue her farther. I told him, when first 
he came to Burgh-Westra, that I destined her for you.” 

“ And to that rash annunciation,” said Mordaunt, “ I 
owe this man’s persevering enmity — my wound, and well 
nigh the loss of my life. See, my mother, to what point 
your intrigues have already conducted us, and, in heav- 
en’s name, prosecute them no farther!” 

It seemed as if this reproach struck Norna with the 
force, at once, and vivacity of lightning ; for she struck 
her forehead with her hand, and seemed about to drop 
from her seat. Mordaunt, greatly shocked, hastened to 
catch her in his arms, and, though scarce knowing what 
to say, attempted to utter some incoherent expressions. 

‘‘ Spare me, heaven, spare me !” were the first words 
which she muttered ; ‘‘ do not let my crime be avenged 
by his means! — Yes, young man,” she said, after a pause, 
“ you have dared to tell what I dared not tell myself. — 
You have pressed that upon me, which, if it be truth, I 
cannot believe, and yet continue to live!” 

Mordaunt in vain endeavoured to interrupt her with 
protestations of his ignorance how he had offended or 
grieved her, and of his extreme regret that he had unin- 
tentionally done either. She proceeded, while her voice 
trembled wildly, with vehemence. 

“ Yes ! you have touched on that dark suspicion which 
poisons the consciousness of my power, — the sole boon 
which was given me in exchange for innocence and for 
peace of mind ! Your voice joins that of the demon which, 
even while the elements confess me their mistress, whis- 
pers to me, ‘ Norna, this is but delusion — your power 
rests but in the idle belief of the ignorant, supported by 
a thousand petty artifices of your own.’ — This is what 
Brenda says — this is what you would say; and false, 
■scandalously false, as it is, there are rebellious thoughts 
m this wild brain of mine, (touching her forehead with 
her finger as she spoke,) that, like an insurrection in an 
invaded country, arise to take part against their distressed 
sovereign, — Spare nie, my son I” she continued, in a 


THE PIRATE. 


159 


roice of supplication, ‘‘ spare me ! — the sovereignty ol 
tvhicli your words would deprive me, is no enviable ex- 
altation. Few would covet to rule over gibbering ghosts, 
and howling winds, and raging currents. My throne is a 
cloud, my sceptre a meteor, my realm is only peopled 
with phantasies ; but I must either cease to be, or continue 
to be the mightiest as well as the most miserable of 
beings 

“ Do not speak thus mournfully, my dear and unhappy 
benefactress,” said Mordaunt, much affected ; “ I will 
think of your power, whatever you would have me believe. 
But, for your own sake, view the matter otherwise. Turn 
your thoughts from such agitating and mystical studies — 
from such wild subjects of contemplation, into another 
and a better channel. Life will again have charms, and 
religion will have comforts for you.” 

She listened to him with some composure, as if she 
weighed his counsel, and desired to be guided by it ; but, 
as be ended, she shook her head and exclaimed — 

It cannot be. 1 must remain the dreaded — the mys- 
tical — the Reimkennar — the controller of the elements, 
or I must be no more! I have no alternative, no middle 
station. My post must be high on yon lofty headland, 
where never stood human foot save mine — or I must sleep 
at the bottom of the unfathomable ocean, its white billows 
booming over my senseless corpse. The parricide shall 
never also be denounced as the impostor!” 

“ The parricide 1” echoed Mordaunt, stepping back 
in horror. 

“ Yes, my son !” answered Norna, with a stern com- 
posure, even more frightful than her former impetuosity, 
“ within these fatal walls my father met his death by my 
means. In yonder chamber was he found a livid and 
lifeless corpse. Beware of filial disobedience, for such 
'ire Its fruits.” 

So saying, she arose and left the apartment, where 
Mordaunt remained alone to meditate at leisure upon the 
extraordinary communication which he had received. 
He himself had been taught by his father a disbelief io 


THE PIRATE. 


1(50 

the ordinary superstitions of Zetland ; and he now saw 
that Norna, however ingenious in duping others, could 
not altogether impose on herself. This was a strong cir- 
cumstance in favour of her sanity of intellect ; but, on 
the other hand, her imputing to herself the guilt of parri- 
cide, seemed so wild and improbable, as, in Mordaunt’s 
opinion, to throw much doubt upon her other assertions. 

He had leisure enough to make up his mind on these 
particulars, for no one approached the solitary dwelling, 
of which Norna, her dwarf, and he himself, were the sole 
inhabitants. The Hoy island in which it stood is rude, 
bold, and lofty, consisting entirely of three hills — or rath- 
er one huge mountain divided into three summits, with the 
chasms, rents, and valleys, which descend from its summit 
to the sea, while its crest, rising to great height, and shiv- 
ered into rocks which seem almost inaccessible, intercepts 
the mists as they drive from the Atlantic, and, often ob- 
scured from the human eye, forms the dark and unmo- 
lested retreat of hawks, eagles, and other birds of prey.^l 

The soil of the island is wet, mossy, cold, and unpro- 
ductive, presenting a sterile and desolate appearance, 
excepting where the sides of small rivulets, or mountain 
ravines, are fringed with dwarf bushes of birch, hazel, 
and wild currant, some of them so tall as to be denomin- 
ated trees, in that bleak and bare country. 

But the view of the sea-beach, which was Mordaunt’s 
favourite walk, when his convalescent state began to per- 
mit him to take exercise, had charms which compensated 
the wild appearance of the interior. A broad and beau- 
tiful sound, or strait, divides this lonely and mountainous 
island from Pomona, and in the centre of that sound lies, 
like a tablet composed of emerald, the beautiful and verdant 
little island of Graemsay. On the distant mainland is seen 
the town or village of Stromness, the excellence of whose 
haven is generally evinced by a considerable number of 
shipping in the roadstead, and, from the bay growing 
narrower, and lessening as it recedes, runs inland intc 
Pomona, where its tide fills the fine sheet of water called 
the Loch of Stennis. 


THE PIRATE. 


161 


On this beach Mordaimt was wont to wander for hours, 
tvith an eye not insensible to the beauties of the view, 
though his thoughts were agitated with the most embar- 
rassing meditations on his own situation. He was resolv- 
ed to leave the island as soon as the establishment of his 
health should permit him to travel ; yet gratitude to Nor- 
na, of whom he was at least the adopted, if not the real 
son, would not allow him to depart without her permis- 
sion, even if he could obtain means of conveyance, of 
which he saw little possibility. It was only by importu- 
nity that he extorted from his hostess a promise, that, if ^ 
he would consent to regulate his motions according to her 
directions, she would herself convey him to the capital of 
the Orkney Islands, when the approaching Fair of Saint 
Olla should take place there. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

Hark to the insult loud, the bitter sneer, 

The fierce threat answering to the brutal jeer ; 

Oaths fly like pistol-shots, and vengeful words 
Clash with each other like conflicting swords. — 

The robber’s quarrel by such sounds is shown, 

And true men have some chance to gain their own. 

Captivity, a Poem 


When Cleveland, borne off in triumph from his assail 
ants in Kirkwall, found himself once more on board the 
pirate-vessel, his arrival was hailed with hearty cheers 
by a considerable part of the crew, who rushed to shake 
hands with him, and offer their congratulations on his re- 
turn ; for the situation of a Bucanier Captain raised him 
rery little above the level of the lowest of his crew 
who, in all social intercourse, claimed the privilege ol 
of being his equal. 

VOL. II. 


162 


THE PIRATE. 


When his faction^ for so these clamorous friends might 
be termed, had expressed their own greetings, they hur- 
ried Cleveland forward to the stern, where Goffe, their 
present commander, was seated on a gun, listening in a 
sullen and discontented mood to the shout which an- 
nounced Cleveland’s welcome. He was a man betwixt 
forty and fifty, rather under the middle size, but so very 
strongly made, that his crew used to compare him to a 
sixty-four cut down. Black-haired, bull-necked, and 
beetle-browed, his clumsy strength and ferocious counte- 
nance contrasted strongly with the manly figure and open 
countenance of Cleveland, in which even the practice ot 
his atrocious profession had not been able to eradicate a 
natural grace of motion and generosity of expression. 
The two piratical captains looked upon each other for 
some time in silence, while the partisans of each gather- 
ed around him. The elder part of the crew were the 
principal adherents of Goffe, while the young fellows, 
among whom Jack Bunce was a principal leader and 
agitator, were in general attached to Cleveland. 

At length Goffe broke silence. — “ You are welcome 
aboard. Captain Cleveland.- — Smash my taffril ! I suppose 
you think yourself commodore yet ! but that was over, by 
G — , when you lost your ship, and be d — d !” 

And here, once for all, we may take notice, that it was 
the gracious custom of this commander to mix his words 
and oaths in nearly equal proportions, which he was wont 
to call shotting his discourse. As we delight not, how- 
ever, in the discharge of such artillery, we shall only indi- 
cate by a space like this the places in which these 

expletives occurred ; and thus, if the reader will pardon 
a very poor pun, we will reduce Captain Goffe’s volley 
of sharp-shot into an explosion of blank cartridges. To 
his insinuations that he was come on board to assume 
the chief command, Cleveland replied, that he neither 
desired, nor #ould accept, any such promotion, but would 
only ask Captain Goffe for a cast of the boat, to put him 
asho' e in one of t le other islands, as he had no wish either 


THE PIRATE. 


163 


(o command GofFe, or to remain in a vessel under his 
orders. 

“ And why not under my orders, brother ?” demanded 

GofFe, very austerely ; “ Are you too good a 

man, with your cheese-toaster and your gib 

there, to serve under my orders, and be d — d to 

you, where there are so many gentlemen that are elder 
and belter seamen than yourself 

“ I wonder which of these capital seamen it was,” said 
Clev^eland, coolly, “that laid the ship under the fire oi 
yon six-gun battery, that could blow her out of the water, 
if they had a mind, before you could either cut or slip ? 
Elder and better sailors than I may like to serve under 
such a lubber, but I beg to be excused for my own share, 
Captain — that’s all I have got to tell you.” 

“ By G — , I think you are both mad !” said Hawkins 
the boatswain — “ a meeting with sword and pistol may be 
devilish good fun in its way, when no better is to be had ; 
but who the devil that had common sense, amongst a set 
of gentlemen in our condition, would fall a-quarrelling with 
each other, to let these duck-winged, web-footed island- 
ers have a chance of knocking us all upon the head ?” 

“Well said, old Hawkins!” observed Derrick the quar- 
ter-master, who was an officer of very considerable impor- 
tance among these rovers ; “ I say, if the two captains, 
won’t agree to live together quietly, and club both heart 
and head to defend the vessel, why, d — n me, depose them 
both, say I, and choose another in their stead !” 

“ Meaning yourself, I suppose. Master Quarter-Mas 
ter !” said Jack Bunce ; “ but that cock won’t fight. — 
He that is to command gentlemen, should be a gentleman 
himself, I think ; and I give my vote for Captain Cleve- 
land, as spirited and as gentleman-like a man as ever 
dafF’d the world aside, and bid it pass !” 

“ What ! you call yourself a gentleman, I warrant !” 

retorted Derrick ; “ why, your eyes ! a tailor would 

make a better out of the worst suit of rags in your stroll- 
ing wardrobe ! — It is a shame for men of spirit to have 
such a Jack-a-dandy scare-crow on board 


(64 


THE PIRATE. 


Jack Bunce was so incensed at these base comparisonSj 
that, without more ado, he laid his hand on his sword 
The carpenter, however, and boatswain, interfered, the 
former brandishing his broad axe, and swearing he would 
put the skull of the first who should strike a blow past 
clouting, and the latter reminding them, that, by their 
articles, all quarrelling, striking, or more especially fight- 
ing, on board, was strictly prohibited ; and that, if any 
gentleman had a quarrel to settle, they were to go ashore, 
and decide it with cutlass and pistol in presence of two 
of their messmates. 

“ I have no quarrel with any one, !” said 

GofFe, sullenly ; “ Captain Cleveland has wandered about 

among the islands here, amusing himself, ! and 

we have wasted our time and property in waiting for him, 
when we might have been adding twenty or thirty thou- 
sand dollars to the stock-purse. However, if it pleases 

the rest of the gentleinen-adventurers, ! why, 

I shall not grumble about it. 

“ I propose,” said the boatswain, “ that there should 
be a general council called in the great cabin, according 
to our articles, that we may consider what course we are 
to hold in this matter.” 

A general assent followed the boatswain’s proposal ; 
for every one found his own account in these general 
councils, in which each of the rovers had a free vote. 
By far the greater part of the crew only valued this fran- 
chise, as it allowed them, upon such solemn occasions, 
an unlimited quantity of liquor — a right which they failed 
not to exercise to the uttermost, by way of aiding their 
deliberations. But a few amongst the adventurers, who 
united some degree of judgment with the daring and prof- 
ligate character of their profession, were wont, at such 
periods, to limit themselves within the bounds of compar- 
ative sobriety, and by these, under the apparent form of 
a vote of the general council, all things of moment re- 
lating to the voyage and undertakings of the pirates, were 
in fact determined. The rest of the crew, when thev 
recovered from their intoxication, were easily persuaded 


THE PIRyVTE. 


165 


iliat the resolution adopted had been the legitimate effort 
of the combined wisdom of the whole senate. 

Upon the present occasion, the debauch had proceed 
ed until the greater part of the crew were, as usual, dis- 
playing inebriation in all its most brutal and disgraceful 
shapes — swearing empty and unmeaning oaths — venting 
the most horrid imprecations in the mere gaiety of their 
heart — singing songs, the ribaldry of which was only 
equalled by their profaneness ; and, from the middle of 
this earthly hell, the two Captains, together with one or 
two of their principal adherents, as also the carpenter and 
boatswain, who always took a lead on such occasions, had 
drawn together into a pandemonium, or privy council of 
their own, to consider what was to be done ; for, as the 
boatswain metaphorically observed, they were in a nar- 
row channel, and behoved to keep sounding the tide-way. 

Wlien they began their consultations, the friends of 
Goffe remarked, to their great displeasure, that he had 
not observed the wholesome rule to which we have just 
alluded ; but that, in endeavouring to drown his morti- 
fication at the sudden appearance of Cleveland, and the 
reception he met with from the crew, the elder Captain 
had not been able to do so without overflowing his reason 
at the same time. His natural sullen taciturnity had pre- 
vented this from being observed until tbe council began 
its deliberations, wdien it proved impossible to hide it. 

The first person who spoke was Cleveland, whasaid, 
that, so far from wishing the command of the vessel, he 
desired no favour at any one’s hand, except to land him 
upon some island or holm at a distance from Kirkwall, 
and leave him to shift for himself. 

The boatswain remonstrated strongly against this reso- 
lution. The lads,” he said, “ all knew Cleveland, and 
could trust his seamanship, as well as his courage ; be- 
sides, he never let the grog get quite uppermost, and was 
always in proper trim, either to sail the ship, or to fight 
the ship, whereby she was never without some one to 
keep her course when he was on board. — And, as for the 
noble Captain Gcfle,” continued the mediator, “ he is as 


m 


THE PIRATE. 


Stout a heart as ever broke biscuit, and that I will uphold 
him ; but then, when he has his grog aboard — I speak 
to his face — he is so d — d funny with his cranks and his 
jests, that there is no living with him. You all remember 
how nigh he had run the ship on that cursed Horse of 
Copinsha, as they call it, just by way of frolic ; and then 
you know how he fired off bis pistol under the table, when 
we were at the great council, and shot Jack Jenkins in 
the knee, and cost the poor devil his leg, with his pleas- 
antry.”^^ 

“ Jack Jenkins was not a chip the worse,” said the 
carpenter ; “ I took the leg off with my saw as well as 
any loblolly-boy in the land could have done — heated my 

broad axe, and seared the stump — ay, by ! and 

made a jury-leg that he shambles about with as well as 
ever he did — for Jack could never cut a feather.”* 

“ You are a clever fellow, carpenter !” replied the 
boatswain, “ a d — d clever fellow ! but I had rather you 
tried your saw and red-hot axe upon the ship’s knee-tim- 
bers than on mine, sink me ! — But that here is not the 
case — The question is, if we shall part with Captain 
Cleveland here, who is a man of thought and action, 
whereby it is my belief it would be heaving the pilot 
overboard when the gale is blowing on a lee-shore. And, 
I must say, it is not the part of a true heart to leave his 
mates, who have been here waiting for him till they have 
missed stays. Our water is well nigh out, and we have 
junketed till provisions are low with us. We cannot sail 
without provisions — we cannot get provisions without the 
good will of the Kirkwall folks. If we remain here longer, 
the Halcyon frigate will be down upon us — she was seen 
off Peterhead two days since, — and we shall hang up at 
the yard-arm to be sun-dried. Now, Captain Cleveland 
will get us out of the hobble, if any can. He can play 
the gentleman with these Kirkwall folks, and knows how 


* A ship going fast through the sea is said to cut a feather, alluding to tlio 
'ipple which she throws off from her bows. 


THE PIRATE. 


167 


to deal with them on fair terms, and foul too, if there 
be occasion for it.” 

“ And so you would turn honest Captain Goffe a-graz- 
ing, would ye ?” said an old weather-beaten pirate, who 
had but one eye ; “ what though he has his humours, and 
made my eye dowse the glim in his fancies and frolics, he 
is as honest a man as ever walked a quarter-deck, for all 
that ; and d — n me but 1 stand by him so long as t’other 
lantern is lit !” 

“ Why, you would not hear me out,” said Hawkins ; 
“ a man might as well talk to so many negers ! — 1 tell 
you, I propose that Cleveland shall only be Captain from 
one, post meridiem, to five, a. m., during which time 
Goffe is always drunk.” 

The Captain of whom he last spoke gave sufficient 
pi oof of the truth of his words, by uttering an inarticu- 
late growl, and attempting to present a pistol at the me- 
diator Hawkins. 

“ Why, look ye now !” ijaid Derrick, “ there is all the 
sense he has, to get diunk on council-day, like one of 
these poor silly fellows !” 

“ Ay,” said Bunco, “ drunk as Davy’s sow, in the 
face of the field, the fray, and the senate !” 

“ But, nevertheless,” continued Derrick, “ it will 
never do to have two captains in the same day. I think 
week about might suit better — and let Cleveland take the 
first turn.” 

“ There are as good here as any of them,” said Haw- 
kins ; “ howsomdever, I object nothing to Captain Cleve- 
land, and I think he may help us into deep water as well 
as another.” 

‘‘ Ay,” exclaimed Bunco, “ and a better figure he will 
make at bringing these Kirkwallers to order than his sober 
predecessor ! — So Captain Cleveland for ever !” 

“ Stop, gentlemen,” said Cleveland, who had hitherto 
been silent ; “ I hope you will not choose me Captain 
<viihout my own consent ?” 

“ Ay, by the blue vault of heaven will we,” said 
Bunco, “ if it be pro hono publico /” 


168 


THE PIRATE. 


But hear me, at least,” said Cleveland — “ I do con- 
sent to take command of the vessel, since you wish it, 
and because I see you will ill get out of the scrape with- 
out me.” 

“ Why then, I say, Cleveland for ever, again !” shouted 
Bunce. 

“ Be quiet, prithee, dear Bunce ! — honest Altamont !” 
said Cleveland. — I undertake the business on this con- 
dition ; that, when I have got the ship cleared for her 
voyage, with provisions, and so forth, you will be content 
to restore Captain GofFe to the command, as I said before^ 
and put me ashore somewhere, to shift for myself — You 
will then be sure it is impossible I can betray you, since I 
will remain with you till the last moment.” 

‘‘ Ay, and after the last moment too, by the blue vault ! 
or I mistake the matter,” muttered Bunce to himself. 

The matter was now put to the vote ; and so confident 
were the crew in Cleveland’s superior address and man- 
agement, that the temporary deposition of Goflfe found 
little resistance even among his own partisans, who rea- 
sonably enough observed, “ he might at least have kept 
sober to look after his own business — E’en let him put it 
to rights again himself next morning, if he will.” 

But, when the next morning came, the drunken part 
of the crew, being informed of the issue of the delibera- 
tions of the council, to which they were virtually held to 
have assented, showed such a superior sense of Cleve- 
land’s merits, that GofFe, sulky and malecontent as he was, 
judged it wisest for the present to suppress his feelings of 
resentment until a safer opportunity for suffering them to 
explode, and to submit to the degradation which so fre- 
quently took place among a piratical crew. 

Cleveland, on his part, resolved to take upon him, with 
spirit and without loss of time, the task of extricating his 
ship’s company from their perilous^ situation. For this 
purpose, he ordered the boat, with the purpose of going 
ashore *n person, carrying with him twelve of the stout- 
est and best men of the crew, all very handsomely ap- 
oointed, (for the success of their nefarious profession 


THE PIRATE. 


169 


had enabled the pirates to assume nearly as gay dresses 
as their officers,) and, above all, each man being suffi- 
ciently armed with cutlass and pistols, and several having 
pole-axes and poniards. 

Cleveland himself was gallantly attired in a blue coat, 
lined with crimson silk, and laced with gold very richly, 
crimson damask waistcoat and breeches, a velvet cap, 
richly embroidered, with a white feather, white silk stock- 
ings, and red-heeled shoes, which were the extremity of 
finery among the gallants of the day. He had a gold 
chain several times folded round his neck, which sustain- 
ed a whistle of the same metal, the ensign of his author- 
ity. Above all, he wore a decoration peculiar to those 
daring depredators, who, besides one, or perhaps two, 
brace of pistols at their belt, had usually two additional 
brace, of the finest mounting and workmanship, suspend- 
ed over their shoulders in a sort of sling or scarf of 
crimson riband. The hilt and mounting of the Captain’s 
sword, corresponded in value to the rest of his appoint- 
ments, and his natural good mien was so well adapted to the 
whole equipment, that, when he appeared on deck, he was 
received with a general shout by the crew, who, as in 
other popular societies, judged a great deal by the eye. 

Cleveland took with him in the boat, amongst others, 
his predecessor in office, Goffe, who was also very richly 
dressed, but who, not having the advantage of such an 
exterior as Cleveland’s, looked like a boorish clown in 
the dress of a courtier, or rather like a vulgar-faced foot- 
pad decked in the spoils of some one whom he has mur- 
dered, and whose claim to the property of his garments 
is rendered doubtful in the eyes of all who look upon him, 
by the mixture of awkwardness, remorse, cruelty, and 
insolence, which clouds his countenance. Cle\ eland 
probably chose to take Goffe ashore with him, to prevent 
ids having any opportunity, during his absence, to de- 
bauch the crew from their allegiance. In this guise they 
left the ship, and, singhig to their oars, while the water 

VOL. II. 


170 


THE PIRATE. 


foamed higher at the chorus, soon reached the quay of 
Kirkwall. 

The command of the vessel was m the meantime in- 
trusted to Bunce, upon whose allegiance Cleveland knew 
that he might perfectly depend, and, in a private conver- 
sation with him of some length, he gave him directions 
how to act in such emergencies as might occur. 

These arrangements being made, and Bunce having 
been repeatedly charged to stand upon his guard alike 
against the adherents of GofFe and any attempt from the 
shore, the boat put off. As she approached the harbour, 
Cleveland displayed a white flag, and could observe that 
their appearance seemed to occasion a good deal of bustle 
and alarm. People were seen running to and fro, and 
some of them appeared to be getting under arms. The 
battery was manned hastily, and the English colours dis- 
played. These were alarming symptoms, the rather that 
Cleveland knew, that, though there were no artillery-men 
in Kirkwall, yet there were many sailors perfectly com- 
petent to the management of great guns, and willing 
enough to undertake such service in case of need. 

Noting these hostile preparations with a heedful eye, 
but suffering nothing like doubt or anxiety to appear on 
his countenance, Cleveland ran the boat right for the 
quay, on which several people, armed with muskets, rifles, 
and fowling-pieces, and others with half-pikes and whal- 
ing-knives, were now assembled, as if to oppose his land- 
ing. Apparently, however, they had not positively de- 
termined what measures they were to pursue ; for, when 
the boat reached the quay, those immediately opposite 
bore back, and suffered Cleveland and his party to leap 
ashore witliout hinderance. They immediately drew up 
on the quay, except two, who, as their Captain had 
commanded, remained in the boat, which they put off to 
a little distance ; a manoeuvre which, while it placed the 
boat (the only one belonging to the sloop) out of danger 
of being seized, indicated a sort of careless confidence in 
Cleveland and his party, which was calculated to intimi- 
date their opponents. 


THE PIRATE. 


171 


The Kirkwallers, however, showed the old Northern 
blood, put a manly face upon the matter, and stood upon 
the quay, with their arms shouldered, directly opposite to 
the rovers, and blocking up against them the street which 
leads to the town. 

Cleveland was the first who spoke, as the parties stood 
thus looking upon each other. — “ How is this, gentlemen 
burghers ?” he said ; ‘‘ are you Orkney folks turned 
Highlandmen, that you are all under arms so early this 
morning ? or have you manned the quay to give me the 
honour of a salute, upon taking the command of my 
ship ?” 

The burghers looked on each other, and one of them 
replied to Cleveland — “ We do not know who you are ; 
it was that other man,” pointing to Goffe, “ who used to 
come ashore as Captain.” 

That other gentleman is my mate, and commands in 
my absence,” said Cleveland ; — “ but what is that to the 
purpose ? I wish to speak with your Lord Mayor, or 
whatever you call him.” 

“ The provost is sitting in council with the magis- 
trates,” answered the spokesman. 

“ So much the better,” replied Cleveland. — “ Where 
do their worships meet ?” 

“ In the council-house,” answered the other. 

“ Then make way for us, gentlemen, if vou please, for 
my people and I are going there.” 

There was a whisper among the town’s people ; but 
several were unresolved upon engaging in a desperate, 
and perhaps an unnecessary conflict, with desperate men ; 
and the more determined citizens formed the hasty re- 
flection that the strangers might be more easily mastered 
in the house, or perhaps in the narrow streets which they 
had to traverse, than when they stood drawn up and pre- 
pared for battle upon the quay. They suffered them, 
therefore, to proceed unmolested ; and Cleveland, moving 
very slowly, keeping his people close together, suffering 
no one to press upon the flanks of his little detachment^ 
and making four men, who constituted his rear-guard, 


172 


THE PIRATE. 


turn round and face to the rear from time to time, render- 
ed it, by his caution, a very dangerous task to make any 
attempt upon them. 

In this manner they ascended the narrow street, and 
reached the council-house, where the magistrates were 
actually sitting, as the citizen had informed Cleveland. 
Here the inhabitants began to press forward, with the pur- 
pose of mingling with the pirates, and availing themselves 
of the crowd in the narrow entrance, to secure as many 
as they could, without allowing them room for the free 
use of their weapons. But this also had Cleveland fore- 
seen, and, ere entering the council-room, he caused the 
entrance to be cleared and secured, commanding four of 
bis men to face down the street, and as many to confront 
the crowd who were thrusting each other from above. 
The burghers recoiled back from the ferocious, swarthy, 
and sun-burned countenances, as well as the levelled 
arms, of these desperadoes, and Cleveland, with the rest 
of his party, entered the council-room, where the mag- 
istrates were sitting in council, with very little attendance. 
These gentlemen were thus separated effectually from 
the citizens, who looked to them for orders, and were 
perhaps more completely at the mercy of Cleveland, than 
he, with his little handful of men, could be said to be at 
that of the multitude by whom they were surrounded. 

The magistrates seemed sensible of their danger ; for 
they looked upon each other in some confusion, when 
Cleveland thus addressed them : — 

‘‘ Good morrow, gentlemen, — I hope there is no un- 
kindness betwixt us. I am come to talk with you about 
getting supplies for my ship yonder in the roadstead — 
we cannot sail without them.” 

“ Your ship, sir ?” said the provost, who was a man 
of sense and spirit, — “ how do we know that you are her 
Captain ?” 

“ Look at me,” said Cleveland, “ and you will, I thinks 
scarce ask the question again.” 

The magistrate looked at him, and accoraingly did not 
think proper to pursue that part of the inquiry, but pro 


THE PIRATE. 


73 


ceeded to say — And, if you are her Captain, whence 
comes she, and where is she bound for ? You look too 
much like a man-of-war’s man to be master of a trader, 
and we know that you do not belong to the British navy.’ 

“ There are more men-of-war on the sea than sail un- 
der the British flag,” replied Cleveland ; “ but say that 
I were commander of a free-trader here, willing to ex- 
change tobacco, brandy, gin, and such like, for cured fish 
and hides, why, I do not think I deserve so very bad 
usage from the merchants of Kirkwall as to deny me pro- 
visions for my money?” 

“ Look you. Captain,” said the town-clerk, “ it is 
not that we are so very strait-laced neither — for, when 
gentlemen of your cloth come this way, it is as weel, as 
1 tauld the provost, just to do as the collier did when he 
met the devil, — and that is, to have naething to say to 
them, if they have naething to say to us ; — and there is. 
the gentleman,” pointing to Goffe, “ that was Captain be- 
fore you, and may be Captain after you,” — (“ The cuck- 
old speaks truth in that,” muttered Goffe,) — “ he knows 
well how handsomely we entertained him, till he and his 
men took upon them to run through the town like hellicat 
devils. — I see one of them there ! — that was the very 
fellow that stopped my servant-wench on the street, as she 
carried the lantern home before me, and insulted her be- 
fore my face !” 

If it please your noble Mayorship’s honour and 
glory,” said Derrick, the fellow at whom the town-clerk 
pointed, ‘‘ it was not I that brought-to the bit of a tender 
that carried the lantern in the poop — it was quite a differ- 
ent sort of a person.” 

“ Who was it then, sir ?” said the provost. 

“ Why, please your majesty’s worship,” said Derrick, 
making several sea bows, and describing as nearly as he 
could the exterior of the worthy magistrate himself, “ he 
was an elderly gentleman, — Dutch-built, round in the 
stern, wfith a white wdg and a red nose— very like your 
majesty, I think then, turning to a comrade, he addedj 

VOL. II. 


174 


THE PIRATE. 


Jack, don’t you think the fellow that wanted to kiss the 
pretty girl with the lantern t’other night was very like his 
worship ?” 

“ By G — , Tom Derrick,” answered the party appeal- 
ed to, “ I believe it is the very man !” 

“ This is insolence which we can make you repent of, 
gentlemen!” said the magistrate, justly irritated at their 
effrontery ; “ you have behaved in this town, as if you 
were in an Indian village at Madagascar. You yourself, 
Captain, if captain you be, were at the head of another 
riot, no longer since than yesterday. We will give you 
no provisions till we know better whom we are supplying. 
And do not think to bully us ; when I shake this handker- 
chief out at the window, which is at my elbow, your ship 
goes to the bottom. Remember she lies under the guns 
of our battery.” 

“ And how many of these guns are honeycombed, Mr. 
Mayor?” said Cleveland. He put the question by chance ; 
but instantly perceived, from a sort of confusion which 
the provost in vain endeavoured to hide, that the artillery 
of Kirkwall was not in the best order. “ Come, come, 
Mr. Mayor,” he said, “ bullying will go down with us as 
little as with you. Your guns yonder will do more harm 
to the poor old sailors who are to work them, than to our 
sloop ; and if we bring a broadside to bear on the town, 
why, your wives’ crockery will be in some danger. And 
then to talk to us of seamen being a little frolicsome 
ashore, why, when are they otherwise ? You have the 
Greenland whalers playing the devil among you every 
now and then ; and the very Dutchmen cut capers in the 
streets of Kirkwall, like porpoises before a gale of wind. 
( am told you are a man of sense, and I am sure you and 
1 could settle this matter in the course of a five minutes 
palaver.” 

“ Well, sir,” said the provost, “ I will hear what you 
have to say, if you will walk this way.” 

Cleveland accordingly followed him into a small in- 
terior apartment, and, when there, addressed the provost 


THE PIRATE. 


175 


thus : “ I will lay aside my pistols sir, if you are afraid 
of them.” 

“ D — your pistols,” answered the provost, “ 1 have 
served the king, and fear the smell of powder as little as 
you do.” 

“ So much the better,” said Cleveland, “ for you will 
hear me the more coolly. — Now, sir, let us he what per- 
haps you suspect us, or let us be any thing else, what, in 
the name of Heaven, can you get by keeping us here, 
but blows and blood-shed For which, believe me, we 
are much better provided than you can pretend to be. 
The point is a plain one — ^you are desirous to be rid ol 
us — we are desirous to be gone. — Let us have the means 
of departure, and we leave you instantly.” 

“ Look ye. Captain,” said the provost, ‘‘ I thirst for 
no man’s blood. You are a pretty fellow, as there were 
many among the bucaniers in my time — but there is no 
harm in wishing you a better trade. You should have 
the stores and welcome, for your money, so you would 
make these seas clear of you. But then, here lies the 
rub. The Halcyon frigate is expected here in these 
parts immediately ; when she hears of you she will be at 
you ; for there is nothing the White Lapelle loves better 
than a rover — ^you are seldom without a cargo of dollars. 
Well, he comes down, gets you under his stern,” 

“ Blows us into the air, if you please,” said Cleveland. 

“ Nay, that must be as you please. Captain,” said the 
provost ; but then, what is to come of the good town of 
Kirkwall, that has been packing and peeling with the 
King’s enemies ^ The burgh will be laid under a round 
fine, and it may be that the provost may not come off so 
easily.” 

“ Well, then,” said Cleveland, “ I see where your 
pinch lies. Now, suppose that I run round this island of 
yours, and get into the roadstead at Stromness ? We 
could get what we want put on board there, without Kirk- 
wall or the provost seeming to have any hand m it ; or, 
if it should be ever questioned, your want of force, and 
our superior strength, will make a sufficient apology.” 


176 


THE PIRATE. 


“ That may be,” said the provcst ; but if I suffer 
you to leave your present station, and go elsewhere, 1 
must have some security that you will not do harm to the 
country.” 

“ And we,” said Cleveland, “ must have some secu- 
rity on our side, that you will not detain us, by dribbling 
out our time till the Halcyon is on the coast. Now, I am 
myself perfectly willing to continue on shore as a hostage, 
on the one side, provided you will give me your word 
not to betray me, and send some magistrate, or person 
of consequence, aboard the sloop, where his safety will 
be a guarantee for mine.” 

The provost shook his head, and intimated it would be 
difficult to find a person willing to place himself as host- 
age in such a perilous condition ; but said he would pro- 
nose the arrangement to such of the council as were fit 
to be trusted with a matter of such weight. 


CHAPTER XV. 

" 1 left my poor plough to go ploughing the deep 

Dibdin. 

When the provost and Cleveland had returned into 
the public council-room, the former retired a second time 
with such of his brethren as he thought proper to advise 
with ; and, while they were engaged in discussing Cleve- 
land’s proposal, refreshments were offered to him and his 
party. These the Captain permitted his people to par- 
take of, but with the greatest precaution against surprisal, 
one party relieving the guard, whilst the others were at 
their food. 

He himself, in the meanwhile, walked up and down the 
apartment, and conversed upon indifferent subjects, with 
those present, like a person quite at his ease. 


THE PIRATE. 


177 


Amongst tliese individuals he saw, somewhat to hiy 
surprise, Triplolemus Yeliowley, who, chancing to be al 
Kirkwall, had been summoned by the magistrates, as re- 
presentative, in a certain degree, of the Lord Chamber- 
lain, to attend council on this occasion. Cleveland im- 
mediately renewed the acquaintance which he had 
formed with the agriculturist at Burgh-Westra, and asked 
him his present business in Orkney. 

“ Just to look after some of my little plans. Captain 
Cleveland. I am weary of fighting with wild beasts 
at Ephesus yonder, and I just cam ower to see how my 
orchard was thriving, whilk I had planted four or five 
miles from Kirkwall, it may be a year byganej and how 
the bees were thriving, whereof I had imported nine 
skeps, for the improvement of the country, and for the 
turning of the heather-bloom into wax and honey.’’ 

“ And they thrive I hope ?” said Cleveland, who, 
however little interested in the matter, sustained the con- 
versation, as if to break the chilly and embarrassed silence 
which hung upon the company assembled. 

“ Thrive !” replied Triptolemus, “ they thrive like 
every thing else in this country, and that is the backward 
way.” 

“ Want of care, I suppose ?” said Cleveland. 

The contrary, sir, quite and clean the contrary,” re- 
plied the Factor; “ they died of ower muckle care, like 
Luckie Christie’s chickens. — I asked to see the skeps, 
and cunning and joyful did the fallow look who was to 
have taken care of them — ‘ Had there been ony body in 
charge but mysell,’ he said, ‘ ye might have seen the 
skeps, or whatever you ca’ them ; but there wad hae been 
as mony solan-geese as flees in them, if it hadna been for 
my four quarters ; for I watched them so closely, that 1 
saw them a’ creeping out at the little holes one sunny 
morning, and if I had not stopped the leak on the instant 
with a bit clay, the deil a bee, or flee, or whatever they 
are wou’ 1 have been left in the skeps, as ye ca’ them !' 
— In a word, sir, he had clagged up the hives, as if the 
pair things had had the pestilence, and my bees were as 


178 


THE PIRATE. 


dead as if they had been smeaked — and so ends my 
hope, generandi gloria mellisj as Virgilius hath it.” 

There is an end of your mead, then,” replied Cleve- 
land ; “ but what is your chance of cider ? — how does 
the orchard thrive ?” 

“ O Captain ! this same Solomon of the Orcadian 
Ophir — I am sure no man need to send thither to fetch 
either talents of gold or talents of sense ! — I say, this wise 
man had watered the young apple-trees, in his great ten- 
derness, with hot water, and they are perished, root and 
branch ! But what avails grieving ? — And I wish you 
would tell me, instead, what is all the din that these good 
folks are making about pirates ? and what for are all these 
ill-looking men, that are armed like so mony Highland- 
men, assembled in the judgment-chamber ? — for I am just 
come from the other side of the island, and I have heard 
nothing distinct about it. — And now I look at you yoursell. 
Captain, I think you have mair of these foolish pistolets 
about you than should suffice an honest man in quiet 
times ?” 

“ And so I think too,” said the pacific Triton, old 
Haagen, who had been an unwilling follower of the dar- 
ing Montrose ; “ if you had been in the Glen of Edder- 
achyllis, when we were sae sair worried by Sir John 
Worry ” 

“ You have forgot the whole matter, neighbour Haag- 
en,” said the Factor ; “ Sir John Urry was on your side, 
and was ta’en with Montrose ; by the same token, he lost 
his head !” 

“ Did he ?” said the Triton. — “ I believe you may be 
right ; for he changed sides mair than anes, and wha 
kens whilk he died for ? — But always he was there, and 
so was I ; — a fight there was, and I never wish to see an- 
other !” 

The entrance of the provost here interrupted their 
desultory conversation. — “ We have determined,” he 
said, Captain, that your ship shall go round to Strom- 
aess, or Scalpa-flow, to take in stores, in order that there 


the pirate. 


i79 


may be no more quarrels between the Fair folks and 
your seamen. And as you wish to stay on shore to see 
the Fair, we intend to send a respectable gentleman on 
board your vessel to pilot her round the Main-land, as 
the navigation is but ticklish.” 

“ Spoken like a quiet and sensible magistrate, Mr. 
Mayor,” said Cleveland, “ and no otherwise than as 1 
expected. — And what gentleman is to honour our quar- 
ter-deck during my absence ?” 

‘‘ We have fixed that too, Captain Cleveland,” said 
the provost ; “ you may he sure we were each more de- 
sirous than another to go upon so pleasant a voyage, and 
in such good company ; but being Fair time, most of us 
have some affairs in hand — I myself, in respect of my 
office, cannot be well spared — the eldest bailies wife is 
lying-in — the treasurer does not agree with the sea — two 
bailies have the gout — the other two are absent from 
town — and the other fifteen members of council are all 
engaged on particular business.” 

“ All that I can tell you, Mr. Mayor,” said Clevelandj 
raising his voice, “ is, that I expect ” 

“ A moment’s patience, if you please;, Captain,” said 
the provost, interrupting him — “ So that we have come 
to the resolution that our worthy Mr. Triptolemus Yel- 
lowley, who is Factor to the Lord Camberlain of these 
islands, shall, in respect of his official situation, be pre- 
ferred to the honour and pleasure of accompanying you.” 

‘‘ Me !” said the astonished Triptolemus ; “ what the 
devil should I do going on your voyages ? — my business 
is on dry land.” 

‘‘ The gentlemen want a pilot,” said the provost, whis- 
pering to him, “ and there is no eviting to give them one.” 

“ Do they want to go bump on shore, then ?” said the 
Factor — “ how the devil should I pilot them, that never 
touched rudder in my life ?” 

‘‘ Hush ! — hush ! — be silent !” said the provost ; “ if 
the people of this town heard ye say such a word, your 
utility, and respect, and rank, and everything else, ia 
clean gone ! — No man is anything with us island folks, 
20 


180 


THE PIRATE. 


unless he can hand, reef, and steer. Besides, it is but a 
mere form, and we will send old Pate Sinclair to help 
you. You will have nothing to do but to eat, drink, and 
be merry all day.” 

“ Eat and drink ?” said the Factor, not able to com- 
prehend exactly why this piece of duty was pressed upon 
him so hastily, and yet not very capable of resisting or 
extricating himself from the toils of the more knowing 
provost — “ Eat and drink 1 — that is all very well ; but, 
to speak truth, the sea does not agree with me any more 
than with the treasurer ; and I have always a better ap- 
petite for eating and drinking ashore.” 

“ Hush 1 hush 1 hush !” again said the provost, in an 
under tone of earnest expostulation ; “ would you actually 
ruin your character out and out? — A Factor of the High 
Chamberlain of the Isles of Orkney and Zetland, and not 
like the sea ! — ^you might as well say you are a High- 
lander, and do not like whisky 1” 

“ You must settle it somehow, gentlemen,” said Cap 
tain Cleveland ; “ it is time we were under weigh. — ^Mr. 
Tri tolemus Yellowley, are we to be honoured with your 
company 

“ I am sure, Captain Cleveland,” stammered the Fac- 
tor, “ I would have no objection to go any where with 
you — only ” 

“ He has no objection,” said the provost, catching at 
the first limb of the sentence, without awaiting the con- 
clusion. 

“ He has no objection,” cried the treasurer. 

“ He has no objection,” sung out the whole four bai- 
lies together ; and the fifteen counsellors, all catching up 
the same phrase of assent, repeated it in chorus, with the 
additions of— “ good man” — “ public-spirited” — “ hon- 
ourable gentleman” — “ burgh eternally obliged” — ‘‘where 
will you find such a worthy Factor ?” and so forth. 

Astonished and confused at the praises with which he 
was overwhelmed on all sides, and in no shape under-' 
standing the nature of the transaction that was going for- 
ward, the astounded and overwhelmed agriculturist 


THE PIRATE, 


18] 


became ncapable of resisting the part of the Kirkwali 
Curtius thus insidiously forced upon him, and was deliv 
ered up by Captain Cleveland to his party, with the 
strictest injunctions to treat him with honour and atten- 
tion. Goffe and his companions, began now to lead him 
olF, amid the applauses of the whole meeting, after the 
manner in which the victim of ancient days was garland- 
ed and greeted by shouts, when consigned to the priests, 
for the purpose of being led to the altar, and knocked on 
the head, a sacrifice for the commonweal. It was while 
they thus conducted, and in a manner forced him out of the 
council-chamber, that poor Triptolemus,much alarmed at 
finding that Cleveland, in whom he had some confidence, 
was to remain behind the party, tried, when just going out 
at the door, the effect of one remonstrating bellow. — “Nay, 
but, Provost ! — Captain ! — Bailies ! — Treasurer ! — Coun- 
sellors ! — if Captain Cleveland does not go aboard to pro- 
tect me, it is nae bargain, and go I will not, unless I am 
trailed with cart-ropes 

His protest was, however, drowned in the unanimous 
chorus of the magistrates and counsellors returning him 
thanks for his public spirit — wishing him a good voyage 
— and praying to Heaven for his happy and speedy re- 
turn. Stunned and overwhelmed, and thinking, if he 
had any distinct thoughts at all, that remonstrance was 
vain, where friends and strangers seemed alike determin- 
ed to carry the point against him, Triptolemus, without 
farther resistance, suffered himself to be conducted into 
the street, where the pirate’s boat’s-crew, assembling 
around him, began to move slowly towards the quay, 
many of the townsfolk following out of curiosity, but 
without any attempt at interference or annoyance ; for the 
pacific compromise which the dexterity of the first mag- 
istrate had achieved, was unanimously approved of as a 
much better settlement of the disputes betwixt them and 
the strangers, than might have been attained by the dubi- 
ous i'Sue of an appeal to arms. 

VOL. II. 


182 


THE PIllATE. 


Meanwhile, as they went slowly along, Triptolemug 
had time to study the appearance, countenance, and dress, 
of those into whose hands he had been thus delivered, 
and began to imagine that he read in their looks, not only 
the general expression of a desperate character, but some 
sinister intentions directed particularly towards himself. 
He was alarmed by the truculent looks of Goffe, in par- 
ticular, who, holding his arm with a gripe which resem- 
bled in delicacy of touch the compression of a smith’s 
vice, cast on him from the outer corner of his eye oblique 
glances, like those which the eagle throws upon the prey 
which she has clutched, ere yet she proceeds, as it is 
technically called, to plume it. At length Yellowley’s 
fears got so far the better of his prudence, that he fairly 
asked his terrible conductor, in a sort of crying whisper, 
“ Are you going to murder me, Captain, in the face of 
the laws baith of God and man ?” 

“ Hold your peace, if you are wise,” said Goffe, who 
had his own reasons for desiring to increase the panic of 
his captive ; “ we have not murdered a man these three 
months, and why should you put us in mind of it ?” 

“ You are but joking, I hope, good worthy Captain,” 
replied Triptolemus. “ This is worse than witches, 
dwarfs, dirking of whales, and cowping of cobles, put all 
together ! — this is an away-ganging crop, with a ven- 
geance ! — What good, in Heaven’s name, would murder- 
ing me do to you ?” 

“We might have some pleasure in it at least,” said 
Goffe Look these fellows in the face, and see if you 
see one among them that would not rather kill a man than 
let it alone ? — But we will speak more of that when you 
have first had a taste of the bilboes— unless, indeed, you 
come down with a handsome round handful of Chili 
boards* for your ransom.” 

“ As I shall live by bread. Captain,” answered the Fac- 
tor, ' hat misbegotten dwarf has carried off the whole 
hornful of silver !” 


Commool^ called hy landsmen Spanish dollars. 


THE PIRATE. 


183 


“ A cat-and-nine-tails will make you find it again,’ 
said Goffe, gruffly ; “ flogging and pickling is an excel- 
lent receipt to bring a man’s wealth into his mind — twist- 
ing a bow-string round his skull till the eyes start a little, 
is a very good remembrancer too.” 

“ Captain,” replied Yellowley, stoutly, “ I have no 
money — seldom can improvers have. — We turn pasture 
to tillage, and barley into aits, and heather into greensward, 
and the poor yarpha, as the benighted creatures here call 
their peat-bogs, into baittle grass-land ; but we seldom 
make anything of it that comes back to our ain pouch. 
— The carles and the cart-avers make it all, and the 
carles and the cart-avers eat it all, and the deil clink 
doun with it 1” 

“ Well, well,” said Goffe, “ if you be really a poor fel- 
low, as you pretend. I’ll stand your friend ;” then, in- 
clining his head so as to reach the ear of the Factor, 
who stood on tiptoe with anxiety, he said, “ If you love 
your life, do not enter the boat with us.” 

“ But how am 1 to get away from you, while you hold 
me so fast by the arm, that I could not get off* if the whole 
year’s crop of Scotland depended on it ?” 

“ Harkye, you gudgeon,” said Goffe, just when you 
come to. the water’s edge, and when the fellows are jump- 
ing in and taking their oars, slue yourself round suddenly 
to the larboard — I will let go your arm — and then cut 
and run for your life !” 

Triptolemus did as he was desired, Goffe’s willing hand 
relaxed the grasp as he had promised, the agriculturist 
trundled off* like a foot-ball that has just received a strong 
impulse from the foot of one of the players, and, with 
celerity which surprised himself as well as all beholders, 
fled through the town of Kirkwall. Nay, such was the 
impetus of his retreat, that, as if the grasp of the pirate 
was still open to pounce upon him, he never stopped till 
he had traversed the whole town, and attained the open 
country on the other side. They who had seen him that 
day — his hat and wig lost in the sudden effort he had 
naade to belt forward, his cravat awry, and his waistcoat 


184 


THE PIRATE. 


unbuttoned. — and who had an opportunity of comparing 
his round spherical form and short legs with the portentous 
speed at which he scoured through the street, might well 
say that if Fury ministers arms, F ear confers wings. His 
very mode of running seemed to be that peculiar to his 
fleecy care, for, like a ram in the midst of his race, he 
ever and anon encouraged himself by a great bouncing at- 
tempt at a leap, though there were no obstacles in his way. 

There was no pursuit after the agriculturist ; and though 
a musket or two were presented, for the purpose of sending 
a leaden messenger after him, yet Gofe, turning peace- 
maker for once in his life, so exaggerated the dangers 
that would attend a breach of the truce with the people 
of Kirkwall, that he prevailed upon the boat’s crew to 
forbear any active hokilities, and to pull ofl* for their ves- 
sel with all despatch. 

The burghers, who regarded the escape of Triptolemus 
as a triumph on their side, gave the boat three cheers, by 
way of an insulting farewell ; while the magistrates, on 
the other hand, entertained great anxiety respecting the 
probable consequences of this breach of articles between 
them and the pirates ; and, could they have seized upon 
the fugitive very privately, instead of complimenting him 
with a civic feast in honour of the agility which he dis- 
played, it is likely they might have delivered the run-away 
hostage once more into the hands of his foemen. But it 
was impossible to set their face publicly to such an act of 
violence, and therefore they contented themselves with 
closely watching Cleveland, whom they determined to 
make responsible for any aggression which might be at- 
tempted by the pirates. Cleveland, on his part, easily 
conjectured that the motive which GofFe had for suffering 
the hostage to escape, was to leave him answerable for all 
consequences ; and, relying more on the attachment and 
intelligence of his friend and adherent, Frederick Alta- 
mont, alias Jack Bunce, than on anything else, expected 
the result with considerable anxiety, since the magistrates 
though they continued to treat him with civility, plainly 
intimated they would regulate his treatment by the beha- 


THE PIRATE. 


185 


viour of the crew, though he no longer commanded them. 

It was not, however, without some reason that he reck- 
oned on the devoted fidelity of Bunce ; for no sooner did 
that trusty adherent receive from Goffe, and the boat’s 
crew, the news of the escape of Triptolemus, than he 
immediately concluded it had been favoured by the late 
Captain, in order that, Cleveland being either put to death 
or consigned to hopeless imprisonment, Goffe might be 
called upon to resume the command of the vessel. 

“ But the drunken old boatswain shall miss his mark,” 
said Bunce to his confederate Fletcher ; “ or else I am 
contented to quit the name of Altamont, and be called 
Jack Bunce, or Jack Dunce, if you like it better, to the 
end of the chapter.” 

Availing himself accordingly of a sort of nautical elo- 
quence, which his enemies termed slack-jaw, Bunce set 
before the crew, in a most animated manner, the disgrace 
which they all sustained, by their Captain remaining, as 
he was pleased to term it, in the bilboes, without any host- 
age to answer for his safety ; and succeeded so far, that, 
besides exciting a good deal of discontent against Goffe, 
he brought the crew to the resolution of seizing the first 
vessel of a tolerable appearance, and declaring that the 
ship, crew, and cargo, should be dealt with according to 
the usage which Cleveland should receive on shore. It 
was judged at the same time proper to try the faith of the 
Orcadians, by removing from the roadstead of Kirkwall, 
and going round to that of Stromness, where, according 
to the treaty betwixt Provost Torf and Captain Cleveland, 
they were to victual their sloop. They resolved, in the 
meantime, to entrust the command of the vessel to a coun- 
cil, consisting of Goffe, the boatswain, and Bunce himself, 
until Cleveland should be in a situation to resume his 
command. 

These resolutions having been proposed and acceded 
to, they weighed anchor, and got their sloop under sail 
without experiencing any opposition or annoyance from 
the battery, which relieved them of one important appre- 
hension iff 'idental to their situation. 

VOL. II. 


186 


THE PIRATE. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

Ct ap on more sail, pursue, up with your fights, 

Give fire — she is my prize, or ocean whelm them all ! 

Shakspeare. 


A VERY handsome brig, which, with several other ves- 
sels, was the property of Magnus Troil, the great Zetland 
Udaller, had received onboard that Magnate himself, his 
two lovely daughters, and the facetious Claud Halcro, 
who, for friendship’s sake chiefly, and the love of beauty 
proper to his poetical calling, attended them on their jour- 
ney from Zetland to the capital of Orkney, to which Norna 
had referred them, as the place where her mystical ora- 
cles should at length receive a satisfactory explanation. 
They passed, at a distance, the tremendous cliffs of the 
lonely spot of earth called the Fair Isle, which, at an 
equal distance from either Archipelago, lies in the sea 
which divides Orkney from Zetland ; and at length, after 
some baffling winds, made the Start of Sanda. Off the 
headland so named, they became involved in a strong 
current, well known, by those who frequent these seas, as 
the Roost of the Start, which carried them considerably 
out of their course, and, joined to an adverse wind, forced 
them to keep on the east side of the island of Stronsa, 
and, fflially, compelled them to lie by for the night in 
Papa Sound, since the navigation in dark or thick weather, 
amongst so many low islands, is neither pleasant nor safe. 

On the ensuing morning they resumed their voyage 
under more favourable auspices ; and, coasting along the 
•sland of Stronsa, whose flat, verdant, and comparatively 
fertile shores, formed a strong contrast to the dun hills 
and dark cliffs of their own islands, they doubled the cape 
cahed the Lamb-head, and stood away for Kirkwall. 


THE PIRATE. 


187 


They had scarce opened the beautiful bay befwixt Po- 
mona and Shapinsha, and the sisters were admiring the 
massive church of Saint Magnus, as it was first seen to 
rise from amongst the inferior buildings of Kirkwall, when 
the eyes of Magnus, and of Claud Halcro, were attract- 
ed by an object which they thought more interesting. 
This was an armed sloop, with her sails set, which had just 
left the anchorage in the bay, and was running before the 
wind by which the brig of the Udaller was beating in. 

“ A tight thing that, by my ancestor’s bones !” said the 
old Udaller ; “ but I cannot make out of what country, 
as she shows no colours. Spanish built, I should think 
her.” 

“ Ay, ay,” said Claud Halcro, ‘‘ she has all the look 
of it. She runs before the wind that we must battle 
with, which is the wonted way of the world. As glorious 
John says, — 


* With roomy deck, and guns of mighty strength, 
Whose low-laid mouths each mounting billow laves. 
Deep in her draught, and warlike in her length. 

She seems a sea-wasp flying on the waves/ ” 


Brenda could not help telling Halcro, when he had 
spouted this stanza with great enthusiasm, ‘‘ that though 
the description was more like a first-rate than a sloop, 
yet the simile of the sea-wasp served bui indifferently for 
either.” 

“ A sea-wasp said Magnus, looking with some sur- 
prise, as the sloop, shifting her course, suddenly bore down 
on them : “ Egad, I wish she may not show us presently 
that she has a sting !” 

What the Udaller said in jest, was fulfilled in earnest ; 
for, without hoisting colours, or hailing, two shots were 
discharged from the sloop, one of which ran dipping and 
dancing upon the water, just a-head of the Zetlander’s 
bows, while the other went through his main-sail. Mag- 
nus caught up a speaking-trumpet and hailed the sloop, 
to demand what she was, and what was the meaning of 
tliis unprovoked aggression. He was only answered by 


188 


THE PIRATE. 


»he stern command, “ Down top-sails instantly, and lay 
your mam-sail to the mast — you shall see who we are 
presently.” 

There were no means within the reach of possibility by 
which obedience could be evaded, where it would in- 
stantly have been enforced by a broadside ; and, with 
much fear on the part of the sisters and Claud Halcro, 
mixed with anger and astonishment on that of the Udal- 
ler, the brig lay-to to wait the commands of the captors. 

The sloop immediately lowered a boat, with six armed 
hands, commanded by Jack Bunce, which rowed directly 
for their prize. As they approached her, Claud Halcro 
whispered to the Udaller, — “ If what we hear of bucan- 
iers be true, these men, with their silk scarfs and vests, 
have th,e very cut of them.” 

“ My daughters ! my daughters !” muttered Magnus 
to himself, with such an agony as only a . father could 
feel, — “ Go down below, and hide yourselves, girls, 
while I ” 

He threw down his speaking-trumpet, and seized on a 
handspike, while his daughters, more afraid of the con- 
sequences of his fiery temper to himself than of anything 
else, hung round him, and begged him to make no resist- 
ance. Claud Halcro united his entreaties, adding, “ It 
were best to pacify the fellows with fair words. They 
might,” he said, “ be Dunkirkers, or insolent man-of- 
war’s men on a frolic.” 

‘‘ No, no,” answered Magnus, “ it is the sloop which 
the jagger told us of. But I will take your advice — I 
will have patience for these girls’ sakes ; yet ” 

He had no time to conclude the sentence, for Bunce 
jumped on board with his party, and drawing his cutlass, 
struck it upon the companion-ladder, and declared the 
ship was theirs. 

“ By what warrant or authority do you stop us on the 
nigh seas ?” said Magnus. 

“ Here are half a dozen of warrants,” said Bunce 
showing the pistols which were hung round him accord 
.ng to a pirate-fashion already mentioned, “ choose which 


THE P1RA.TE. 


189 


y'ou like, old gentleman, and you sliall have the perusal 
of it presently.” 

“ That is to say, you intend to rob us ?” said Magnus. 
— “ So be it — we have no means to help it — only be civil 
to the women, and take what you please from the vessel, 
riiere is not much, but I will and can make it worth more, 
if you use us well.” 

“ Civil to the women !” said Fletcher, who had also 
come on board with the gang — “ when were we else than 
civil to them ? ay, and kind to boot ? — Look here, Jack 
Bunce ! — what a trim-going little thing here is ! By G — , 
she shall make a cruise with us, come of old Squaretoes 
what will !” 

He seized upon the terrified Brenda with one hand, 
and insolently pulled back with the other the hood of the 
mantle in which she had muffled herself. 

“ Help, father ! — help, Minna !” exclaimed the affright- 
ed girl, unconscious, at the moment, that they were una- 
ble to render her assistance. 

Magnus again uplifted the handspike, but Bunce stop- 
ped his hand. — “ Avast, father !” he said, “ or you will 
make a bad voyage of it presently. — And you, I’letcher, 
let go the girl !” 

“ And, d — n me ! why should I let her go ?” said 
Fletcher. 

“ Because I command you, Dick,” said the other, 
‘‘ and because I’ll make it a quarrel else. — And now let 
me know, beauties, is there one of you bears that queer 
heathen name of Minna, for which I have a certain sort 
of regard ?” 

“ Gallant sir !” said Halcro, “ unquestionably it is be- 
cause you have some poetry in your heart.” 

“ I have had enough of it in my mouth in my time,” 
answered Bunce ; “ but that day is by, old gentleman — • 
however, I shall soon find out which of these girls is Min- 
na. — Throw back your mufflings from your faces, and 
don’t be afraid, my Lindamiras : no one here shall meddle 
with you to do you wrong. On my soul, two pretty 
wenches ' — I wish I were at sea in an egg-shell, and a rock 


190 


THE PIRATE. 


under my lee-bow, if I would wish a better leaguer-lass 
than the worst of them ! — Hark you, my girls ; which ol 
you would like to swing in a rover’s hammock ? — you 
should have gold for the gathering !” 

The terrified maidens clung close together, and grew pale 
at the bold and familiar language of the desperate libertine. 

“ Nay, don’t be frightened,” said he ; no one shall 
serve under the noble Aliamont but by her own free choice 
— There is no pressing amongst gentlemen of fortune. 
And do not look so shy upon me neither, as if I spoke of 
wiiat you never thought of before. One of you, at least, 
has heard of Captain Cleveland, the rover.” 

Brenda grew still paler, but the blood mounted at once 
in Minna’s cheeks, on hearing the name of her lover thus 
unexpectedly introduced ; for the scene was in itself so 
confounding, that the idea of the vessel’s being the con- 
sort of which Cleveland had spoken at Burgh-Westra, 
had occurred to no one save the Udaller. 

“ i see how it is,” said Bunce, with a familiar nod, 
“ and I will hold my course accordingly. — You need not 
be afraid of any injury, father,” he added, addressing 
Magnus familiarly ; “ and though I have made many a 
pretty girl pay tribute in my time, yet yours shall go ashore 
without either wrong or ransom.” 

“ If you will assure me of that,” said Magnus, “ you 
are as welcome to the brig and cargo, as ever I made man 
welcome to a can of punch.” 

“ And it is no bad thing that same can of punch,” said 
Bunce, “ if we had any one here that could mix it well.” 

“ I will do it,” said Claud Halcro, ‘‘ with any man that 
ever squeezed lemon — Erick Scambester, the punch- 
maker of Burgh-Westra, being alone excepted.” 

“ And you are within a grapnell’s length of him too,” 
said the Udaller. — “ Go down below, my girls,” he ad- 
ded, and send up the rare old man, and the punch-bowl.’' 

“ The punch-bowl !” said Fletcher ; “ I say, the 
bucket, d — n me ! — Talk of bowls in the cabin of a paltry 
merchantman, but not to gentlemen-strollers — rovers, i 


THK PIRATE. 


19l 


would say,” correcting himself, as he observed that Bunce 
looked sour at the mistake. 

“ And I say these two pretty girls shall stay on deck, 
and fill my can,” said Bunce ; “ I deserve some attend- 
ance, at least, for all my generosity.” 

“ And they shall fill mine too,” said Fletcher — “ they 
shall fill it to the brim ! — and ] will have a kiss for every 
drop they spill — broil me, if I won’t !” 

“ Why, then, I tell you, you shan’t !” said Bunce ; 
“ for I’ll be d — d if any one shall kiss Minna but one, and 
that’s neither you nor I ; and her other little bit of a con- 
sort shall ’scape for company ; — there are plenty of wil- 
ling wenches in Orkney. — And so, now I think on it, these 
girls shall go down below, and bolt themselves into the 
cabin ; and we shall have the punch up here on deck, al 
fresco, as the old gentleman proposes.” 

“ Why, Jack, I wish you knew your own mind,” said 
Fletcher ; “ I have been your messmate these two years, 
and I love you ; and yet flay me like a wild bullock, if 
you have not as many humours as a monkey ! — And what 
shall we have to make a little fun of, since you have sent 
the girls down below ?” 

“ Why, we will have Master Punch-maker here,” an- 
swered Bunce, “ to give us toasts, and sing us songs. — 
And, in the meantime, you there, stand by sheets and 
tacks, and get her under way ! — and you, steersman, as 
you would keep your brains in your skull, keep her under 
the stern of the sloop. — If you attempt to play us any 
trick, I will scuttle your sconce as if it were an old cala- 
bash !” 

The vessel was accordingly got under way, and moved 
slowly on in the wake of the sloop, which, as had been 
previously agreed upon, held her course not to return to 
the Bay of Kirkwall, but for an excellent roadstead called 
Inganess Bay, formed by a promontory which extends to 
the eastward two or three miles from the Orcadian me- 
tropolis, and where the vessels might conveniently lie at 
anchor, while the rovers maintained any communication 


192 


THE PIRATE. 


with the magistrates which the new state of things seemed 
to require. 

Meantime Claud Halcro had exerted his utmost talents 
in compounding a bucket-full of punch for the use of the 
pirates, which they drank out of large cans ; the ordinary 
seamen, as well as Bunce and Fletcher, who acted as offi- 
cers, dipping them into the bucket with very little cere- 
mony, as they came and went upon their duty. Magnus, 
who was particularly apprehensive that liquor might 
awaken the brutal passions of these desperadoes, was yet 
so much astonished at the quantities which he saw them 
drink, without producing any visible effect upon their rea- 
son, that he could not help expressing his surprise to 
Bunce himself, who, wild as he was, yet appeared by far 
the most civil and conversable of his party, and whom he 
was, perhaps, desirous to conciliate, by a compliment of 
which all boon topers know the value, 

“ Bones of Saint Magnus !” said the Udaller, “ I used 
to think I took off my can like a gentleman ; but to see 
your men swallow. Captain, one would think their stom- 
achs were as bottomless as the hole of Laifell in Foula, 
which I have sounded myself with a line of an hundred 
fathoms. By my soul, the Bicker of Saint Magnus 
were but a sip to them !” 

“ In our way of life, sir,” answered Bunce, there is 
no stint till duty calls, or the puncheon is drunk out.” 

“ By my word, sir,” said Claud Halcro, “ I believe 
there is not one of your people but could drink out the 
mickle bicker of Scarpa, which was always offered to the 
Bishop of Orkney brimful of the best bummock that ever 
was brewed.”^^ 

“ If drinking could make them bishops,” said Bunce^ 
“ I should have a reverend crew of them ; but, as they 
have no other clerical qualities about them, I do not pro- 
pose that they shall get drunk to-day ; so we will cut our 
drink with a song.” 

‘‘ And I’ll sing it, by !” said or swore Dick 

Fletcher, a id instantly struck up the old ditty — 


THE PlllATE. 


193 


** It was a ship, and a ship of fame, 

Launch’d off the stocks, bound for the main. 

With a hundred and fifty brisk young men. 

All picked and chosen every one.” 

‘ I would sooner be keel-hauled than hear that song 
pvei again,” said Bunco ; “ and confound your lantern 
jaws, you can squeeze nothing else out of them!” 

“ By G ,” said Fletcher, “ I will sing my song, 

whether you like it or no ;” and again he sung, with the 
doleful tone of a north-easter whistling through sheet and 
shrouds, 

“ Captain Glen was our captain’s name ; 

A very gallant and brisk young man ; 

As bold a sailor as e’er went to sea, 

And we were bound for High Barbary.” 

“ I tell you again,” said Bunce, “ we will have none 
of your screech-owl music here ; and I’ll be d — d if you 
shall sit here and make that infernal noise.” 

“ Why then. I’ll tell you what,” said Fletcher, getting 
up, “ I’ll sing when I walk about, and I hope there is no 
harm in that, Jack Bunce.” And so getting up from his 
seat, he began to walk up and down the sloop, croaking 
out his long and disastrous ballad. 

“ You see how I manage them,”' said Bunce, with a 
smile of self-appjause — “ allow that fellow two strides on 
his own way, and you make a mutineer of him for life. 
But I tie him strict up, and he follows me as kindly as a 
fowler’s spaniel, after he has got a good beating. — And 
now your toast and your song, sir,” addressing Halcro ; 
“ or rather your song without your toast. I have got a 
toast for myself. Here is success to all roving blades, 
and confusion to all honest men !” 

“ I should be sorry to drink that toast, if I could help 
it,” said Magnus Tioil. 

“ What ! you reckon yourself one of the honest folks, 
I warrant ?” said Bunce. — “ Tell me your trade, and I’ll 
tell you what I think of it. As for the punch-maker here, 

[ knew him at first glance to be a tailor, who has, there- 

VOL. II 


J94 


THE PIRATE. 


fore, no more pretensions to be honest, than he has not 
to he mangy. But you are some High-Dutch skipper, 
I warrant me, that tramples on the cross when he is in 
Japan and denies his religion for a day’s gain. 

“ No,” replied the Udaller, “ I am a gentleman of 
Zetland.” 

“ O, what !” retorted the satirical Mr. Bunce, you 
are come from the happy climate where gin is a groat 
a-bottle, and where there is daylight for ever 

“ At your service. Captain,” said the Udaller, sup- 
pressing with much pain some disposition to resent these 
jests on his country, although under every risk, and at all 
disadvantage. 

“ At service !” said Bunce — “ Ay, if there was a 
rope stretched from the wreck to the beach, you would be 
at my service to cut the hawser, make floatsome and 
letsome of ship and cargo, and well if you did not give me 
a rap on the head with the back of the cutty-axe ; and 
you call yourself honest ? But never mind — here goes 
the aforesaid toast — and do you sing me a song, Mr 
Fashioner ; and look it be as good as your punch.” 

Halcro, internally praying for the powers of anew Ti- 
motheus,to turn his sti*ain and check his auditor’s pride, as 
glorious John had it, began a heart-soothing ditty with the 
following lines : — 

Maidens fresh as fairest rose, 

Listen to this lay of mine/’ 

‘‘ I will hear nothing of maidens or roses,” said Bunce ; 

it puts me in mind what sort of a cargo we have got on 
board ; and, by G — , I will be true to my messmate and 
my captain as long as I can. — And now 1 think on’t, I’ll 
have no more punch either — that last cup made innova- 
tion, and I am not to play Cassio to-night — and if 1 drink 
lot, nobody else shall.” 

So saying, he manfully kicked over the bucket, whicli, 
notwithstanding the repeated applications made to it, was 
still half full, got up from his seat, shook himself a little 
to rights, as he expressed it, cocked his hat, and, walking 


THE PIRATE. 


195 


the quarter-deck with an air of dignity, gave, by word 
and signal, the orders for bringing the ships to anchor, 
which were readily obeyed by both, GolFe being then, in 
all probability, past any rational state of interference. 

The Udaller, in the meantime, condoled with Halcro 
on their situation. “ It is bad enough,” said the tougli 
old Norseman ; “ for these are rank rogues — and yet, 
were it not for the girls, I should not fear them. That 
young vapouring fellow, who seems to command, is not 
such a born devil as he might have been.” 

“ He has queer humours, though,” said Halcro ; “ and 
I wish we were loose from him. To kick down a bucket 
half full of the best punch ever was made, and to cut me 
short in the sweetest song I ever wrote, — I promise you, 
I do not know what he may do next^ — it is next door to 
madness.” 

Meanwhile, the ships being brought to anchor, the val- 
iant Lieutenant Bunce called upon Fletcher, and, resum- 
ing his seat by his unwilling passengers, he told them they 
should see what message he was about to send to the 
wittols of Kirkwall, as they were something concerned in 
it. “ It shall run in Dick’s name,” he said, “ as well as 
in mine. I love to give the poor young fellow a little 
countenance now and then — don’t I, Dick, you d — d 
stupid ass?” 

“ Why, yes. Jack Bunce,” said Dick, “ I can’t say 
but as you do — only you are always bullocking one about 
something or other too — but, howsomdever, d’ye see — ” 

“ Enough said — belay your jaw, Dick,” said Bunce, 
and proceeded to write his epistle, which, being read 
aloud, proved to be of the following tenor: “ For the 
Mayor and Aldermen of Kirkwall — Gentlemen, As, con- 
trary to your good faith given, you have not sent us on 
board a hostage for the safety of our Captain remaining 
on shore at your request, these come to tell you, we are 
not thus to be trifled with. We have already in our pos- 
session, a brig, with a family of distinction, its owners and 
passengers ; and as you deal with our Captain, so will we 
deal with them in every respect. And as this is the first, 


196 


THE PIRATE. 


SO assure yourselves it shall not be the last damage which 
we will do to your town and trade, if you do not send on 
board our Captain, and supply us with stores according 
to treaty. 

“ Given on board the brig Mergoose of Burgh-Westra, 
lying in Inganess Bay. Witness our hands, commanders 
of the Fortune’s Favourite, and gentlemen adventurers.” 

He then subscribed himself Frederick Altamont, and 
handed the letter to Fletcher, who read the said subscrip- 
tion with much difficulty ; and, admiring the sound of it 
very much, swore he would have a new name himself, 
and the rather that Fletcher was the most crabbed word 
to spell and conster, he believed, in the whole dictionary. 
He subscribed himself, accordingly, Timothy Tugmutton. 

“ Will you not add a few lines to the coxcombs ?” said 
Bunce, addressing Magnus. 

‘‘ Not 1,” returned the Udaller, stubborn in his ideas 
of right and wrong, even in so formidable an emergency. 

The magistrates of Kirkwall know their duty, and were 
I they — ” But here the recollection that his daughters 
were at the mercy of these ruffians, blanked the bold 
visage of Magnus Troil, and checked the defiance which 
was just about to issue from his lips. 

“ D — n me,” said Bunce, who easily conjectured what 
was passing in the mind of his prisoner — “ that pause 
would have told well on the stage — it would have brought 
down pit, box, and gallery, egad, as Bayes has it.” 

“ I will hear nothing of Bayes,” said Claud Halcro, 
(himself a little elevated,) “ it is an impudent satire on 
glorious John ; but he tickled Buckingham off for it — 

‘ In the first rank of these did Zimri stand ; 

A man so various ’ ” 

Hold your peace!” said Bunce, drowning the voice 
of the admirer of Dryden in louder and more vehement 
asseveration, “ the Rehearsal is the best farce ever was 
written — and I’ll make him kiss the gunner’s daughter 
that denies it. D — n me, I was the best Prince Prettyman 
ever walked the boards — 


THE riRATE. 


197 


* Sometimes a fisher’s son, sometimes a prince/ 

But Ipt us to business. — Hark ye, old gentleman, (to 
Magnus,) you have a sort of sulkiness about you, for 
which some of my profession would cut your ears out of 
your head, and broil them for your dinner with red pep- 
per. I have known GofFe do so to a poor devil, for look- 
ing sour and dangerous when he saw his sloop go to Davy 
Jones’ locker with his only son on board. But I’m a 
spirit of another sort ; and if you or the ladies are ill 
used, it shall be the Kirkwall people’s fault, and not mine, 
and that’s fair ; and so you had better let them know 
your condition, and your circumstances, and so forth, — • 
and that’s fair too.” 

Magnus thus exhorted, took up the pen, and attempted 
to write ; but his high spirit so struggled with his paternal 
anxiety, that his hand refused its office. “ I cannot help 
it,” he said, after one or two illegible attempts to write — 
“ I cannot form a letter, if all our lives depended upon it.” 

And he could not, with his utmost efforts, so suppress 
the convulsive emotions which he experienced, but that 
they agitated his whole frame. The willow which bends 
to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which 
resists it ; and so, in great calamities, it sometimes hap- 
pens, that light and frivolous spirits recover their elastici- 
ty and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier 
character. In the present case, Claud Halcro w^as for- 
tunately able to perform the task which the deeper feel- 
ings of his friend and patron refused. He took the pen, 
and, in as few words as possible, explained the situation 
in which they were placed, and the cruel risks to which 
they were exposed, insinuating at the same time, as deli- 
cately as he could express it, that, to the magistrates of 
the country, the life and honour of its citizens should be 
a dearer object than even the apprehension or punishment 
of the guilty ; taking care, however, to qualify the last 
expression as much as possible, for fear of giving umbrage 
to tbs pirates. 

VOL. II. 


198 


THE riKATE. 


Bunce read ove • the letter, which fortunately met hit 
approbation ; and, on seeing the name of Claud Halcro 
at the bottom, he exclaimed, in great surprise, and with 
more energetic expressions of asseveration than we choose 
to record — “ Why, you are the little fellow that played 
the fiddle to old Manager Gadabout’s company, at Hogs 
Norton, the first season I came out there ! I thought 1 
knew your catch-word of glorious John.” 

At another time this recognition might not have been 
very grateful to Halcro’s minstrel pride ; but, as matters 
stood with him, the discovery of a golden mine could not 
have made him more happy. He instantly remembered the 
very hopeful young performer who came out in Don Se- 
bastian, and judiciously added, that the muse of glorious 
John had never received such excellent support during 
the lime that he was first (he might have added, and only) 
violin to Mr. Gadabout’s company. 

“ Why, yes,” said Biunce, ‘‘ I believe you are right — 
1 think 1 might have shaken the scene as well as Booth 
or Betterton either. But I was destined to figure on 
other boards, (striking his foot upon the deck,) and I be- 
lieve I must stick by them, till I find no board at all to 
support me. But nowj old acquaintance, I will do some- 
thing for you— slue yourself this way a bit — I would have 
you solus.” They leaned over the taffrail, while Bunce 
whispered with more seriousness than he usually showed, 
“ I am sorry for this honest old heart of Norway pine — 
blight me if I am not — and for the daughters too — besides, 
I have my own reasons for befriending one of them. 1 
can be a wild fellow with a willing lass of the game ; but to 
such decent and innocent creatures— d — n me, I am Scip- 
io at Numantia, and Alexander in the tent of Darius 
You remember how I touch off Alexander ? (here he 
started into heroics.) 

' Thus from the grave I rise to save my love ; 

All draw your swords, with wings of lightning move. 

When I rush on, sure none will dare to stay— 

^is beauty calls, and glory shows the way.' 


THE PIRATE. 


199 


Claud Halcro failed not to bestow the necessary com- 
mendations on his declamation, declaring, that, in his 
opinion as an honest man, he had always thought Mr. 
Altamont’s giving that speech far superior in tone and 
energy to Betterton. 

Bunce, or Altamont, wrung his hand tenderly. “ Ah, 
you flatter me, my dear friend,” he said ; “ yet, why had 
not the public some of your judgment ! — I should not then 
have been at this pass. Heaven knows, my dear Mr. 
Halcro — heaven knows with what pleasure I could keep 
you on board with me, just that I might have one friend 
who loves as much to hear, as 1 do to recite, the choicest 
pieces of our finest dramatic authors. The most of us 
are beasts — and, for the Kirkwall hostage yonder, he uses 
me, egad, as I use Fletcher, I think, and huffs me the 
more, the more I do for him. But how delightful it 
would be in a tropic night, when the ship was hanging on 
the breeze, with a broad and steady sail, for me to re- 
hearse Alexander, with you for my pit, box, and gallery ! 
Nay, (for you are a flower of the muses as I remember,) 
who knows but you and I might be the means of inspir- 
ing, like Orpheus and Eurydice, a pure taste into our 
companions, and softening their manners, while we ex- 
cited their better feelings?” 

This was spoken with so much unction, that Claud 
Halcro began to be afraid he had both made the actual 
punch over potent, and mixed too many bewitching in- 
gredients in the cup of flattery which he had administer- 
ed ; and that, under the influence of both potions, the 
sentimental pirate might detain him by force, merely to 
realize the scenes which his imagination presented. The 
conjuncture was, however, too delicate to admit of any 
active effort, on Halcro’s part, to redeem his blunder, and 
therefore he only returned the tender pressure of his 
friend’s hand, and uttered the interjection, “ alas !” in as 
pathetic a tone as he could. 

Bunce immediately resumed : ‘‘ You are right, my 
friend, these are but vain visions of felicity, and it remains 
but for the unhappy Altamont to serve the friend to whom 


200 


THE PIRATE. 


he is now to bid farewell. I have determined to put you 
and the two girls ashore, with Fletcher for your protec- 
tion ; and so call up the young women, and let them be 
gone before the devil get aboard of me, or of some one 
else. You will carry my letter to the magistrates, and 
second it with your own eloquence, and assure them, that 
if they hurt but one hair of Cleveland’s head, there will 
be the devil to pay, and no pitch hot.” 

Relieved at heart by this unexpected termination of 
Bunco’s harangue, Halcro descended the companion lad- 
der two steps at a time, and knocking at the cabin door, 
could scarce find intelligible language enough to say his 
errand. The sisters hearing with unexpected joy, that 
they were to be set ashore, muffled themselves in their 
cloaks, and, when they learned that the boat was hoisted 
out, came hastily on deck, where they were apprized for 
the first time, to their great horror, that their father was 
still to remain on board of the pirate. 

“We will remain with him at every risk,” said Minna 
— “ we may be of some assistance to him, were it but for 
an instant — rwe will live and die with him!” 

“ We shall aid him more surely,” said Brenda, who 
comprehended the nature of their situation better than 
Minna, “ by interesting the people of Kirkwall to grant 
these gentlemen’s demands.” 

“ Spoken like an angel of sense and beauty,” said 
Bunce ; “ and now away with you ; for, d — n me, if this 
is not like having a lighted linstock in the powder-room 
' — if you speak another word more, confound me if I know 
how I shall bring myself to part with you!” 

“ Go, in God’s name, my daughters,” said Magnus. 
“ I am in God’s hand ; and when you are gone 1 shall 
care little for myself — and I shall think and say, as long 
as I live, that this good gentleman deserves a better b ade. 
— Go — go — away with you” — for they yet lingered in 
reluctance to leave him. 

“ Stay not to kiss,” said Bunce, “ for fear I be tempted 
to ask my share. Into the boat with you — yet stop an 
instant.” He drew the three captives apart — “ Fletcher,’’ 


THE PIRATE. 


201 


said he, “ will answer for the rest of the fellows, and will 
see you safe off the sea-beach. But how to answer for 
Fletcher, I know not, except by trusting Mr. Halcro with 
this little guarantee.” 

He offered the minstrel a small double-barrelled pistol, 
which, he said, was loaded with a brace of balls. Minna 
observed Halcro’s hand tremble as he stretched it out to 
take the weapon. “ Give it to me, sir,” she said, taking 
it from the outlaw ; and trust to me for defending my 
sister and myself.” 

“ Bravo, bravo !” shouted Bunce. “ there spoke a 
wench worthy of Cleveland, the King of Rovers.” 

“ Cleveland !” repeated Minna, “ do you then know 
that Cleveland, whom you have twice named ?” 

“ Know him ! Is there a man alive,” said Bunce, “ that 
knows better than I do the best and stoutest fellow ever 
stepped betwixt stem and stern } When he is out of the 
bilboes, as please Heaven he shall soon be, I reckon to see 
you come on board of us, and reign the queen of every 
sea we sail over. — You have got the little guardian ; I 
suppose you know how to use it ? If Fletcher behaves ill 
to you, you need only draw up this piece of iron with your 
thumb, so — and if he persists, it is but crooking your 
pretty fore-finger thus, and I shall lose the most dutiful 
messmate that ever man had — though, d — n the dog, he 
will deserve his death if he disobeys my orders. And 
now, into the boat — but stay, one kiss for Cleveland’s 
sake.” 

Brenda, in deadly terror, endured his courtesy, but 
Minna, stepping back with disdain, offered her hand. 
Bunce laughed, but kissed, with a theatrical air, the fair 
hand which she extended as a ransom for her lips, and 
at length the sisters and Halcro were placed in the boat, 
which rowed off under Fletcher’s command. 

Bunce stood on the quarter-deck, soliloquizing after the 
manner of his original profession. ‘‘ Were this told at 
Port-Royal now, or at the Isle of Providence, or in the 
Petits Guaves, I wonder what they would say of me ! 
Why, that I was a good-natured milksop — a Jack-a-lent 


202 


THE riRATE. 


< — an ass. — ^Well, let them. T have done enough of bad 
to think about it ; it is worth while doing one good action, 
if it were but for the rarity of the thing, and to put one 
in good humour with one’s self.” Then turning to Mag- 
nus Troil, he proceeded — “ By , these are bona 

robas, these daughters of yours 1 The eldest would make 
her fortune on the London boards. What a dashing at- 
titude the wench had with her, as she seized the pistol !— 
d — n me, that touch would have brought the house down. 
What a Roxalana the jade would have made!” (for, in iiis 
oratory, Bunce, like Sancho’s gossip, Thomas Cecial, 
was apt to use the most energetic word which came to 
hand, without accurately considering its propriety.) “ I 
would give my share of the next prize but to hear her 
spout — 

* Away, be gone, and give a whirlwind room, 

Or I will blow you up like dust. — Avaunt ! 

Madness but meanly represents my rage.’ 

And then, again, that little, soft, shy, tearful trembler, 
for Statira, to hear her recite — 

* He speaks the kindest words, and looks such things, 

Vows with such passion, swears with so much grace, 

That ’tis a kind of heaven to be deluded by him.' 

What a play we might have run up ! — I was a beast not 
to think of it before I sent them off — I to be Alexander 
— Claud Halcro, Lysimachus — this old gentleman might 
have made a Clytus for a pinch. I was an idiot not to 
think of it 1” 

There was much in this effusion which might have lis- 
pleased the Udaller ; but, to speak truth, he paid no at- 
tention to it. His eye, and, finally, his spy-glass, were 
employed in watching the return of his daughters to the 
shore. He saw them land on the beach, and, accompa- 
nied by Halcro, and another man, (Fletcher, doubtless,) 
he saw them ascend the acclivity, and proceed upon the 
road to Kirkwall, and he could even distinguish that 
Minna, as if considering herself as the guardian of the 


THE PIRATE. 


203 


party, walked a little aloof from the rest, on tne watch, 
as it seemed, against surprise, and ready to act as occa- 
sion should require. At length, as the Udaller was just 
about to lose sight of them, he had the exquisite satisfac- 
tion to see the party halt, and the pirate leav.e them, after 
a space just long enough for a civil farewell, and proceed 
slowly back, on his return to the beach. Blessing the 
Great Being who had thus relieved him from the most 
agonizing fears which a father can feel, the worthy Udal- 
ler, from that instant, stood resigned to his own fate 
whatever that might be. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


Over the mountains and under the waves, 

Over the fountains and under the graves, 

Over floods that are deepest. 

Which Neptune obey. 

Over rocks that are steepest. 

Love will find out the way. 

Old Song. 

The parting of Fletcher from Claud Halcro and the 
sisters of Burgh-Westra, on the spot where it took place, 
was partly occasioned by a small party of armed men be- 
ing seen at a distance in the act of advancing from Kirk- 
wall, an apparition hidden from the Udaller’s sp)^ -glass by 
the swell of the ground, but quite visible to the pirate, 
whom it determined to consult his own safety by a speedy 
return to his boat. He was just turning away, when 
Minna occasioned the short delay which her father had 
observed. 

“ Stop,” she said ; “ I command you ! — Tell your 
leader from me, that whatever the answer may be from 
Kirkwall, he shall carry his vessel, nevertheless, round to 
Stromness ; and, being anchored there, let him send a 
21 


204 


THE PIRATE. 


boat ashore ior Capiaia Cleveland when he shall see a 
smoke on the Bridge of Broisgar.” 

Fletcher had thought, like his messmate Bunce, of 
asking a kiss, at least, for the trouble of escorting these 
beautiful young women ; and, perhaps, neither the terror 
of the approaching Kirkwall men, nor of Minna’s weapon, 
might have prevented his being insolent. But the name 
of his Captain, and, still more, the unappalled, dignified, 
and commanding manner of Minna Troil, overawed him. 
He made a sea bow, — promised to keep a sharp look-out. 
and, returning to his boat, went on board with his message. 

As Halcro and the sisters advanced towards the 
party whom they saw on the Kirkwall road, and 
who, on their part, had baited as if to observe them, 
Brenda, relieved from the fears of Fletcher’s presence 
which had hitherto kept her silent, exclaimed, ‘‘ Merciful 
Heaven ! — Minna, in w’hat hands have we left our dear 
father ?” 

“ In the hands of brave men,” said Minna, steadily — 
“ I fear not for him.” 

“ As brave as you please,” said Claud Halcro, “ but 
very dangerous rogues for all that. — I know that fellow 
Altamont, as he calls himself, though that is not his right 
name neither, as deboshed a dog as ever made a barn 
ring with blood and blank verse. He began with Barn- 
well, and every body thought he would end with the gal- 
lows, like the last scene in Venice Preserved.” 

“ It matters not,” said Minna — “ the wilder the waves, 
the more powerful is the voice that rules them. The 
name alone of Cleveland ruled the mood of the fiercest 
amongst them.” 

“ I am sorry for Cleveland,” said Brenda, “ if such 
are his companions, — but I care little for him in compar- 
ison to my father.” 

“ Reserve your compassion for those who need it,” 
said Minna, “ and fear nothing for our father. — God 
tcnows, every silver hair on his head is to me worth the 
treasure of an unsunned mine ; but I know that he is safe 


THE PIRATE. 


205 


while in yonder vessel, and I know that he will be soon 
safe on shore.” 

“ I would I could see it,” said Claud Halcro ; “ but J 
fear the Kirkwall people, supposing Cleveland to be such 
as I dread, will not dare to exchange him against the 
Udaller. The Scots have very severe laws against theft- 
boot, as tjiey call it.” 

“ But who are those on the road before us ?” said Bren- 
da ; “ and why do they halt there so jealously ?” 

“ They are a patrol of the militia,” answered Halcro. 
“ Glorious John touches them off a little sharply, — but 
then John was a Jacobite, — 

‘ Mouths without hands, maintain’d at vast expense, 

In peace a charge, in war a weak defence ; 

Stout once a-monlh, they march a blustering band, 

And ever, but in time of need, at hand.’ 


I fancy they halted just now, taking us, as they saw us 
on the brow of the hill, for a party of the sloop’s men, 
and, now they can distinguish that you wear petticoats, 
they are moving on again.” 

They came on accordingly, and proved to be, as Claud 
Halcro had suggested, a patrol sent out to watch the 
motions of the pirates, and to prevent their attempting 
descents to damage the country. 

They heartily congratulated Claud Halcro, who was 
well known to more than one .of them, upon his escape 
from captivity ; and the commander of the party, while 
offering every assistance to the ladies, could not help con- 
doling with them on the circumstances in which their fa- 
ther stood, hinting, though in a delicate and doubtful 
manner, the difficulties which might be in the way of his 
liberation. 

When they arrived at Kirkwall, and obtained an audi- 
ence of the provost and one or two of the magistrates, 
these difficulties were more plainly insisted upon. — “ The 
Halcyon f.igate is upon the coast,” said the provost ; 
“ she was seen off Duncansbay-head 5 and, though I have 

VOL II. 


206 


THE PIRATE. 


(he deepest respect for Mr. Troil of Burgh-Westra. ^el 
I shall be answerable to law if I release from prison the 
Captain of this suspicions vessel, on account of the safety 
of any individual who may be unhappily endangered by 
his detention. This man is now known to be the heart 
and soul of these biicaniers, and am I at liberty to send 
him aboard, that he may plunder the country, or perhaps 
go fight the King’s ship } — for he has impudence enough 
for anything.” 

“ Courage enough for anything, you mean, Mr. Pro- 
vost,” said Minna, unable to restrain her displeasure. 

‘‘ Why, you may call it as you please. Miss Troil,” 
said the worthy magistrate ; “ but, in my opinion, that 
sort of courage which proposes to fight singly against two, 
is little better than a kind of practical impudence.” 

“ But our father ?” said Brenda, in a tone of the most 
earnest entreaty — “ our father — the friend, I may say the 
father, of his country — to whom so many look for kind- 
ness, and so many for actual support — whose loss would 
be the extinction of a beacon in a storm — will you indeed 
weigh the risk which he runs, against such a trifling thing 
as letting an unfortunate man from prison, to seek his un- 
nappy fate elsewhere 

“ Miss Brenda is right,” said Claud Halcro ; “ I am 
for let-a-be for let-a-be, as the boys say ; and never fash 
about a warrant of liberation, provost, but just take a fool’s 
counsel, and let the goodman of the jail forget to draw his 
bolt on the wicket, or leave a chink of a window open, 
or the like, and weshallbe rid of the rover, and have the 
one best honest fellow in Orkney or Zetland on the lee- 
side of a bowl of punch with us in five hours.” 

The provost replied in nearly the same terms as be- 
fore, that he had the highest respect for Mr. Magnus 
Troil of Burgh-Westra, but that he could not suffer his 
consideration for any individual, however respectable, to 
interfere with the discharge of his duty. 

Minna then addressed her sister in a tone of calm and 
sarcastic displeasure. — “ You forget,” she said, “ Bren- 
da, that you are talking of the safety of a poor insignifi* 


THE PIRATE. 


207 


cant Udaller of Zetland, to no less a person than the Chief 
iMagistrate of the metropolis of Orkney — can you expect 
so great a person to condescend to such a trifling subject 
of consideration ? It will be time enough for the provost 
to think of complying with the terms sent to him — for 
comply with them at length he both must and will — when 
the Church of Saint Magnus is beat down about his ears.” 

“ You may be angry with me, my pretty young lady,” 
said the good-humoured Provost Torfe, “ but I cannot be 
offended with you. The Church of Saint Magnus has 
stood many a day, and, I think, will outlive both you and 
me, much more yonder pack of unhanged dogs. And 
besides that your father is half an Orkneyman, and has 
both estate and friends among us, I would, I give you my 
word, do as much for a Zetlander in distress as I would 
for any one, excepting one of our own native Kirkwallers, 
who are doubtless to be preferred. And if you will take 
up your lodgings here with my wife and myself, we will 
endeavour to show you,” continued he, “ that you are as 
welcome in Kirkwall, as ever you could be in Lerwick or 
Scalloway.” 

Minna deigned no reply to this good-humoured invita- 
tion, but Brenda declined it in civil terms, pleading the ne- 
cessity of taking up their abode with a wealthy widow of 
Kirkwall, a relation, who already expected them. 

Halcro made another attempt to move the provost, but 
found him inexorable. — “ The Collector of the Customs 
had already threatened,” he said, to inform against him 
for entering into treaty, or, as he called it, packing and 
peeling with those strangers, even when it seemed the only 
means of preventing a bloody affray in the town ; and, 
should he now forego the advantage afforded by the im- 
prisonment of Cleveland and the escape of the Factor, 
he might incur something worse than censure.” The 
burden of the whole was, “ that he was sorry for the 
Udaller, he was sorry even for the lad Cleveland, who had 
some sparks of honour about him ; but his duty was im- 
perious, and must be obeyed.” The provost then pre- 
cluded farther argument, by observing, that another afiau 


208 


THE PIRATE. 


from Zetland called for his immediate attention. A gen- 
tleman named Mertoun, residing at Jarlshof, had made 
complaint against Snailsfoot the jagger, for having assisted 
a domestic of his in embezzling some valuable articles 
which had been deposited in his custody, and he was about 
to take examinations on the subject, and cause them to 
be restored to Mr. Mertoun, who was accountable for them 
to the right owner. 

In all this information, there was nothing which seemed 
interesting to the sisters excepting the word Mertoun, 
which went like a dagger to the heart of Minna, when she 
recollected the circumstances under which Mordaunt 
Mertoun had disappeared, and which, with an emotion less 
painful, though still of a melancholy nature, called a faint 
blush into Brenda’s cheek, and a slight degree of moisture 
‘nto her eye. But it was soon evident that the magistrate 
spoke not of Mordaunt, but of his father ; and the daugh- 
ters of Magnus, little interested in his detail, took leave 
of the provost to go to their own lodgings. 

When they arrived at their relation’s, Minna made it 
her business to learn, by such inquiries as she could make 
without exciting suspicion, what w^as the situation of the 
unfortunate Cleveland, which she soon discovered to be 
exceedingly precarious.. The provost had not, indeed, 
committed him to close custody, as Claud Halcro had an- 
ticipated, recollecting, perhaps, the favourable circumstan- 
ces under which he had surrendered himself, and loath, till 
the moment of the last necessity, altogether to break faith 
with him. But although left apparently at large, he was 
strictly watched by persons well armed and appointed for 
the purpose, who had directions to detain him by force, 
if he attempted to pass certain narrow precincts which 
were allotted to him. He was quartered in a strong room’ 
within what is called the King’s Castle, and at night his 
chamber door was locked on the outside, and a suSicienl 
guard mounted to prevent his escape. He therefore en- 
loyed only the degree of liberty which the cat, in her 
cruel sport, is sometimes pleased to permit to the mouse 
which she has clutched ; and yet, such was the terror ol 


THE PIRATE. 


209 


the resources, the courage, and ferocity of the pirate Cap- 
tain, that the provost was blamed by the collector, and 
many other sage citizens of Kirkwall, for permitting him 
to be at large upon any conditions. 

It may be well believed, that, under such circumstan- 
ces, Cleveland had no desire to seek any place of public 
resort, conscious that he was the object of a mixed feel- 
ing of curiosity and terror. His favourite place of exer- 
cise, therefore, was the external aisles of the Cathedral 
of Saint Magnus, of which the eastern end alone is fitted 
up for public worship. This solemn old edifice, having 
escaped the ravage which attended the first convulsions 
of the Reformation, still retains some appearance of epis- 
copal dignity.. This place of worship is separated by a 
screen from the nave and western limb of the cross, and 
the whole is preserved in a state of cleanliness and de- 
cency, which might be well proposed as an example to 
the proud piles of Westminster and Saint Paul’s. 

It was in this exterior part of the Cathedral that Cleve- 
land was permitted to walk, the rather that his guards, by 
watching the single open entrance, had the means, with 
very little inconvenience to themselves, of preventing any 
possible attempt at escape. The place itself was well 
suited to his melancholy circumstances. The lofty and 
vaulted roof rises upon ranges of Saxon pillars, of mas- 
sive size, four of which, still larger than the rest, once 
supported the lofty spire, which, long since destroyed by 
accident, has been rebuilt upon a disproportioned and 
truncated plan. The light is admitted at the eastern end 
through a lofty, well-proportioned, and richly-ornamented 
Gothic window, and the pavement is covered with inscrip- 
tions, in different languages, distinguishing the graves ol 
noble Orcadians, who have at different times been de- 
posited within the sacred precincts. 

Here walked Cleveland, musing over the events of a 
mis-spent life, which, it seemed probable, might be brought 
to a violent and shameful close, while he was yet in the 
prime of youth. — “ With these dead,” he said, looking 

VOL. II. 


210 


THE PIRATE. 


on the pavement, “shall I soon be numbered — ^but no holy 
man will speak a blessing ; no friendly hand register au 
inscription ; no proud descendant sculpture armorial bear- 
ings over the grave of the pirate Cleveland. My whiten- 
ing bones will swing in the gibbet-irons, on some wild 
beach or lonely cape, that will be esteemed fatal and ac- 
cursed for my sake. The old mariner, as he passes the 
sound, v*^ill shake his head, and tell of my name and ac- 
tions, as a warning to his younger comrades. — But, Min- 
na ! Minna ! — what will be thy thoughts when the news 
reaches thee ? — Would to God the tidings were drowned 
in the deepest whirlpool betwixt Kirkwall and Burgh- 
Westra, ere they came to her ear ! — and O, would to 
Heaven that we had never met, since we never can meet 
again !” 

He lifted up his eyes as he spoke, and Minna Troil 
stood before him. Her face was pale, and her hair dish- 
evelled ; but her look was composed and firm, with its 
usual expression of high-minded melancholy. She was 
still shrouded in the large mantle which she had assumed 
on leaving the vessel. Cleveland’s first emotion was as- 
tonishment ; his next was joy, not unmixed with awe. 
He would have exclaimed — he would have thrown him- 
self at her feet, — rbut she imposed at once silence and com- 
posure on him, by raising her finger, and saying, in a low 
but commanding accent, — “ Be cautious — we are observ- 
ed — there are men without — they let me enter with diffi- 
culty. 1 dare not remain long — they would think — they 
might believe — O Cleveland ! I have hazarded every 
thing to save you !” 

“ To save me ? — alas ! poor Minna !” answered Cleve- 
land, “ to save me is impossible. Enough that I have 
seen you once more, w^ere it but to say, for ever farewell !’ 

“ We must, indeed, say farewell,” said Minna ; “ for 
fate, and your guilt, have divided us for ever. — Cleveland, 
[ have seen your associates — need I tell you more — need 
I say, that I know now what a pirate is ?” 

“ You have be^n in the ruffians’ power !” said Cleve 
'and, with a start of agony — “ Did they presume ” 


THE PIRATE. 


211 


“ Cleveland,” replied Minna, ‘‘ they presumed noth- 
ing — your name was a spell over them. By the power 
of that spell over these ferocious banditti, and by that 
alone, I was reminded of the qualities I once thought my 
Cleveland’s !” 

“ Yes,” said Cleveland, proudly, “ my name has and 
shall have power over them, when they are at the wildest ; 
and, had they harmed you by one rude word, they should 
have found — Yet what do I rave about — I am a prisoner !’ 

“ You shall be so no longer,” said Minna — “ Youi 
safety — the safety of my dear father — all demand youi 
instant freedom, I have formed a scheme for your lib 
erty, which, boldly executed, cannot fail. The light i; 
fading without — muffle yourself in my cloak, and you wih 
easily pass the guards — I have given them the means of 
carousing, and they are deeply engaged. Haste to the 
Loch of Stennis, and hide yourself till day dawns ; then 
make a smoke on the point, where the land, stretching 
into the lake on each side, divides it nearly in two at the 
Bridge of Broisgar. Your vessel, which lies not far dis- 
tant, will send a boat ashore. — Do not hesitate an instant!” 

“ But you, Minna ! — should this wild scheme succeed,” 
said Cleveland, “ what is to become of you ?” 

“ For my share in your escape,” answered the maid- 
en, “ the honesty of my own intention will vindicate me 
in the sight of Heaven ; and the safety of my father, 
whose fate depends on yours, will be my excuse to 
man.” 

In a few words, she gave him the history of their cap- 
ture, and its consequences. Cleveland cast up his eyes 
and raised his hands to heaven, in thankfulness for the 
escape of the sisters from his evil companions, and then 
hastily added, — “ But you are right, Minna ; I must tiy at 
all rates — for your father’s sake I must fly. — Here, then, 
we part — yet not, I trust, for ever.” 

“ For ever !” answered a voice, that sounded as from 
a sepulchral vault. 

They started, looked around them, and then gazed on 
each c ther It seemed as if the echoes of the building 


212 


THE PIRATE 


had returned Cleveland’s last words, but the pronuncia- 
tion was too emphatically accented. 

“ Yes, for ever !” said Norna of the Fitful-head, step- 
ping forward from behind one of the massive Saxon pillars 
which support the roof of the Cathedral. “ Here meet 
the crimson foot and the crimson hand. Well for both that 
the wound is healed whence that crimson was derived — 
well for both, but best for him who shed it. — Here, then, 
you meet — and meet for the last time !” 

“ Not so,” said Cleveland, as if about to take Minna’s 
hand ; “ to separate me from Minna, while 1 have life, 
must be the work of herself alone.” 

“ Away !” said Norna, stepping betwixt them, “ away 
with such idle folly ! — nourish no vain dreams of future 
meetings — you part here, and you part for ever. The 
hawk pairs not with the dove ; guilt matches not with in- 
nocence. — Minna Troil, you look for the last time on this 
bold and criminal man — Cleveland, you behold Minna 
for the last time !” 

“ And dream you,” said Cleveland, indignantly, “ that 
your mummery imposes on me, and that I am among the 
fools who see more than trick in your pretended art ?” 

“ Forbear, Cleveland, forbear !” said Minna, her he- 
reditary awe of Norna augmented by the circumstance of 
her sudden appearance. “ O, forbear ! — she is powerful 
— she is but too powerful. — And do you, O Norna, re- 
member my father’s safety is linked with Cleveland’s.” 

“ And it is well for Cleveland that I do remember it,” 
replied the Pythoness — “ and that, fcr the sake of one, I 
am here to aid both. You, with your childish purpose, of 
passing one of his bulk and stature under the disguise of 
a few paltry folds of wadmaal — what would your device 
have procured him but instant restraint with bolt and 
shackle } — 1 will save him — I will place him in security 
on board his bark. But let him renounce these shores 
^or ever, and carry elsewhere the terrors of his sable flag, 
and his yet blacker name ; for if the sun rises twice, and 
finds him still at anchor, his blood be on his own head. — • 
Ay look to each other — look the last look that I perrnh 


THE PIRATE. 


213 


to frail affection, — and say, if ye can say it. Farewell for 
ever!” 

“ Obey her,” stammered Minna ; “ remonstrate not, 
but obey her.” 

Cleveland, grasping her hand, and kissing it ardently, 
said, but so low that she only could hear it, “ Farewell, 
Minna, but not for ever.” 

“ And now, maiden, begone,” said Norna, “ and leave 
the rest to the Reimkennar.” 

“ One word more,” said Minna, “ and I obey you. 
Tell me but if I have caught aright your meaning — Is 
Mordaunt Mertoun safe and recovered ?” 

‘‘ Recovered, and safe,” said Norna ; “ else w'o to the 
hand that shed his blood !” 

Minna slowly sought the door of the Cathedral, and 
turned back from time to time to look at the shadowy form 
of Norna, and the stately and military figure of Cleve- 
land, as they stood together in the deepening gloom of 
the ancient Cathedral. When she looked back a second 
time, they were in motion, and Cleveland followed the 
matron, as, with a slow and solemn step, she glided to- 
wards one of the side aisles. When Minna looked back 
a third time, their figures w’ere no longer visible. She 
collected herself, and walked on to the eastern door by 
which she had entered, and listened for an instant to the 
guard, who talked together on the outside. 

“ The Zetland girl stays a long time with this pirate 
fellow,” said one. “ I wish they have not more to speak 
about than the ransom of her father.” 

“ Ay, truly,” answered another, “ the wenches will 
have more sympathy with a handsome young pirate, than 
an old bed-ridden burgher.” 

Their discourse was here interrupted by her of whom 
they were speaking ; and, as if taken in the manner, they 
pulled off their hats, made their awlward obeisances, and 
looked not a little embarrassed and confused. 

Minna returned to the house where she lodged, much 
affected, yet, on the whole, pleased with the result of her 
expedition, which seemed to put her father out of danger, 


214 


THE PIRATE. 


and assured her at once of the escape of Cleveland, and 
of the safety of young Mordaunt. She hastened to corn^ 
municate both pieces of intelligence to Brenda, who 
joined her in thankfulness to heaven, and was herself well 
nigh persuaded to believe in Norna’s supernatural pre- 
tensions, so much was she pleased with the manner in 
which they had been -employed. Some time was spent 
in exchanging their mutual congratulations, and mingling 
tears of hope, mixed with apprehension ; when, at a late 
hour in the evening, they were interrupted by Claud Hal- 
cro, who, full of a fidgetting sort of importance, not un- 
mingled with fear, came to acquaint them, that the prison- 
er, Cleveland, had disappeared from the Cathedral, in 
which he had been permitted to walk, and that the pro- 
vost, having been informed that Minna was accessary to 
his flight, was coming, in a mighty quandary to make in- 
quiry into the circumstances. 

When the worthy magistrate arrived, Minna did not 
conceal from him her own wish that Cleveland should 
make his escape, as the only means which she saw of re- 
deeming her father from imminent danger. But that she 
had any actual accession to his flight she positively de- 
nied ; and stated, “ that she had parted from Cleveland in 
the Cathedral, more than two hours since, and then left 
him in company with a third person whose name she did 
not conceive herself obliged to communicate.” 

“ It is not needful. Miss Minna Troil,” answered Pro- 
vost Torfe ; “ for although no person but this Captain 
Cleveland and yourself was seen to enter the kirk of Saint 
Magnus this day, we know well enough that your cousin, 
old Ulla Troil, whom you Zetlanders call Norna of Fitful- 
head, has been cruising up and down, upon sea and land, 
and air, for what I know, in boats and on ponies, and it may 
be on broomsticks ; and here has been her dumb Drow, 
too, coming and going, and playing the spy on every one 
— and a good spy he is, for he can hear every thing, and 
tells nothing again, unless to his mistress. And we know, 
besides, that she can enter the kirk when all the doors 
are fast, and has been seen there more ihan once, God 


THE PIRATE. 


215 


save us from the Evil One ! — And so, without farther 
questions asked, 1 conclude it was old Norna whom you 
left in the kirk with this slashing blade — and, if so, they 
may catch them again that can. — I cannot but say, hovv- 
e'^er, pretty Mistress Minna, that you Zetland folks seem 
to forget both law and gospel, when you use the help ol 
witchcraft to fetch delinquents out of a legal prison ; and 
the least that you, or your cousin, or your father, can do 
is to use influence with this wild fellow to go away as 
soon as possible, without hurting the town or trade, and 
then there will be little harm in what has chanced ; for, 
heaven knows, I did not seek the poor lad’s life, so I could 
get my hands free of him without blame ; and far less 
did I wish, that, through his imprisonment, any harm 
should come to worthy Magnus Troil of Burgh-Westra.” 

“ I see where the shoe pinches you, Mr. Provost,” said 
Claud Halcro, “ and I am sure I can answer for my 
friend Mr. Troil, as well as for myself, that we will say 
and do all in our power with this man Captain Cleveland, 
to make him leave the coast directly.” 

“ And I,” said Minna, “ am so convinced that what 
you recommend is best for all parties, that my sister and 
i will set off early to-morrow morning to the House of 
Stennis, if Mr. Halcro will give us his escort, to receive 
my father when he comes ashore, that we may acquaint 
him with your wish, and to use every influence to induce 
this unhappy man to leave the country.” 

Provost Torfe looked upon her wdth some surprise 
“ It is not every young woman,” he said, “ would wish 
to move eight miles nearer to a band of pirates.” 

“ We run no risk,” said Claud Halcro, interfering. 
“ The House of Stennis is strong ; and my cousin, wdiom 
it belongs to, has men and arms within it. The young 
ladies are as safe there as in Kirkwall ; and much good 
may arise from an early communication between Magnus 
Troil and his daughters. And happy am 1 to see, that in 
your case, my good old friend, — as glorious John says,— - 

After much debate, 

The man prevails above the magistrate/’ 


216 


THE PIRATE. 


The provost smiled, nodded his head, and indicated, 
as far as he thought he could do so with decency, how 
happy he should be if the Fortune’s Favourite, and her 
disorderly crew, would leave Orkney without farther in- 
terference, or violence on either side. He could not au- 
thorize their being supplied from the shore, he said ; but, 
either for fear or favour, they were certain to get pro- 
visions at Stromness. This pacific magistrate then took 
leave of Halcro and the two ladies, who proposed, the 
next morning, to transfer their residence to the House of 
Stennis, situated upon the banks of the salt-water lake of 
the same name, and about four miles by water from the 
Road of Stiomness, where the Rover’s vessel was lying. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

Fly, Fleance, fly ! — Thou inayest escape. 

Macbeth. 

It was one branch of the various arts by which Norna 
endeavoured to maintain her pretensions to supernatural 
powers, that she made herself familiarly and practically 
acquainted with all the secret passes and recesses, whether 
natural or artificial, which she could hear of, whether by 
tradition or otherwise, and was, by such knowledge, often 
enabled to perform feats which were otherwise unaccount- 
able. Thus, when she escaped from the tabernacle at 
Burgh-Westra, it was by a sliding board which covered a 
secret passage in the wall, known to none but herself and 
Magnus, who, she was well assured, would not betray 
her. The profusion also, with which she lavished a con- 
siderable income, otherwise of no use to her, enabled her 
to procure the earliest intelligence respecting whatever 
she desired to know, and, at the same time, to secure^^all 
other assistance necessary to carry her plans into effect. 


THE PIRATE. 


217 


Cleveland, upon the present occasion, had reason to ad- 
mire both her sagacity and her resources. 

Upon her applying a little forcible pressure, a 
door, which was concealed under some rich wooden 
sculpture in the screen which divides the eastern aisle 
from the rest of the Cathedral, opened, and disclosed a 
dark narrow winding passage, into which she entered, 
telling Cleveland, in a whisper, to follow, and be sure he 
shut the door behind him. He obeyed, and followed her 
i-n darkness and silence, sometimes descending steps, of 
the number of which she always apprized him, sometimes 
ascending, and often turning at short angles. The air 
was more free than he could have expected, the passage 
being ventilated at different parts by unseen and ingeni- 
ously contrived spiracles, which communicated with the 
open air. At length their long course ended, by INorna 
drawing aside a sliding panel, which, opening behind a 
wooden, or box-bed, as it is called in Scotland, admitted 
them into an ancient, but very mean apartment, having a 
latticed window, and a groined roof. The furniture was 
much dilapidated ; and its only ornaments were, on the 
one side of the wall, a garland of faded ribands, such as 
are used to decorate whale-vessels ; and on the other, an 
escutchion, bearing an Earl’s arms and coronet, surround- 
ed with the usual emblems of mortality. The mattock 
and spade, which lay in one corner, together with the 
appearance of an old man, who, in a rusty black coat, 
and slouched hat, sat reading by a table, announced that 
they were in the habitation of the church-beadle, or sex- 
ton, and in the presence of that respectable functionary. 

When his attention was attracted by the noise of the 
sliding panel, he arose, and testifying much respect, but 
no sur})rise, took his shadowy hat from his thin grey locks, 
and stood uncovered in the presence of Norna, with an 
air of profound humility. 

“ Be faithful,” said Norna to the old man, and be- 
ware you show not any living mortal the secret path to 
the Sanctuary.” 

VOL. II. 


218 


THE PIRATE. 


The old man bowed, in token of obedience and of 
thanks, for she put money in his hand as she spoke. 
With a faltering voice, he expressed his hope that she 
would remember his son, who was on the Greenland voy 
age, that he might return fortunate and safe, as he had 
done last year, when he brought back the garland, point- 
ing to that upon the wall. 

“ My cauldron shall boil, and my rhyme shall be said 
in his behalf,” answered Norna. “ Waits Pacolet with- 
out with the horses ?” 

The old sexton assented, and the Pythoness, command- 
ing Cleveland to follow her, went through a back door of 
the apartment into a small garden, corresponding, in its 
desolate appearance, to the habitation they had just quit- 
ted. The low and broken wall easily permitted them to 
pass into another and larger garden, though not much 
better kept, and a gate, which was upon the latch, let 
them into a long and winding lane, through which, Norna 
having whispered to her companion that it was the only 
dangerous place on their road, they walked with a hasty 
pace. It was now nearly dark, and the inhabitants of 
the poor dwellings, on either hand, had betaken them- 
selves to their houses. They saw only one woman, who 
was looking from her door, but blessed herself, and re- 
tired into her house with precipitation, when she saw the 
tall figure of Norna stalk past her with long strides. The 
lane conducted them into the country, where the dumb 
dwarf waited with three horses, ensconced behind the 
wall of a deserted shed. On one of these Norna in- 
stantly seated herself, Cleveland mounted another, and, 
followed by Pacolet on the third, they moved sharply on 
through the darkness ; the active and spirited animals on 
which they rode being of a breed rather taller than those 
reared in Zetland. 

After more than an hour’s smart riding, in which Norna 
acted as guide, they stopped before a hovel, so utterly 
desolate in appearance, that it resembled rather a cattle- 
shed than a cottage 


THE PIRATE. 


219 


“ Here you must remain till dawn, when your signal 
can be seen from your vessel,” said Norna, consigning the 
horses to the care of Pacolet, and leading the way into 
the wretched hovel, which she presently illuminated by 
lighting the small iron lamp which she usually carried 
along with her. ‘‘.It is a poor,” she said, “ but a safe 
place of refuge ; for were we pursued hither, the earth 
would yawn and admit us into its recesses ere you were 
taken. For know, that this ground is sacred to the Gods 
of old Valhalla. — And now say, man of mischief and of 
blood, are you friend or foe to Norna, the sole priestess 
of these disowned deities ?” 

“ How is it possible for me to be your enemy ?” said 
Cleveland. — “ Common gratitude ” 

“ Common gratitude,” said Norna, interrupting him, 
“ is a common word — and words are the common pay 
which fools accept at the hands of knaves ; but Norna 
must be requited by actions — by sacrifices.” 

“ Well, mother, name your request.” 

“ That you never seek to see Minna Troil again, and 
that you leave this coast in twenty-four hours,” answered 
Norna. 

“ It is impossible,” said the Outlaw ; “ I cannot be 
soon enough found in the sea-storei3 which the sloop must 
have.” 

“ You can. I will take care you are fully supplied , 
and Caithness and Hebrides are not far distant — you can 
depart if you will.” 

“ And why should I,” said Cleveland, “ if I will not ?” 

“ Because your stay endangers others,” said Norna, 
'‘ and will prove your own destruction. Hear me with 
attention. From the first moment I saw you lying sense- 
less on the sand beneath the cliffs of Sumburgh, I read 
that in your countenance which linked you with me, and 
those who were dear to me ; but whether for good or 
evil, was hidden from mine eyes. I aided in saving your 
life — in preserving your property. I aided in doing so 
the very youth whom you have crossed in his dearest af- 
fections — crossed by tale-bearing and slander.” 


220 


THE PIRATE. 


“ I slander Mertoun !” exclaimed Cleveland. “By 
h 3aven, I scarce mentioned his name at Burgh-Westra 
if it is that which you mean; The peddling fellow Bryce^ 
meaning, I believe, to be my friend, because he found 
something could be made by me, did, I have since heard, 
carry tattle, or truth, I know not which, to the old man, 
which was confirmed by the report of the whole island. 
But, for me, I scarce thought of him as a rival ; else, I 
had taken a more honourable way to rid myself of him.” 

“ Was the point of your double-edged knife directed 
to the bosom of an unarmed man, intended to carve out 
that more honourable way ?” said Norna, sternly. 

Cleveland was conscience-struck, and remained silent 
for an instant, ere he replied, “ there, indeed, I was 
wrong ; but he is, I thank heaven, recovered, and wel- 
come to an honourable satisfaction.” 

“ Cleveland,” said the Pythoness, “ No ! The fiend 
who employs you as his implement is powerful ; but with 
me he shall not strive. Yoii are of that temperament 
which the dark Influences desire as the tools of their 
agency ; bold, haughty, and undaunted, unrestrained by 
principle, and having only in its room a wild sense of inr 
domitable pride, which such men call honour. Such you 
are, and as such your course through life has been — on- 
ward and unrestrained, bloody and tempestuous. By me, 
nowever, it shall be controlled,” she concluded, stretchr 
ing out her staff, as if in the attitude of determined author- 
ity — “ ay, even although the demon who presides over it 
should now arise in his terrors.” 

Cleveland laughed scornfully. ‘‘ Good mother,” he 
said, “ reserve such language for the rude sailor that im- 
plores you to bestow him fair wind, or the poor fisherman 
that asks success to his nets and lines. I have been long 
inaccessible both to fear and to superstition. Call forth 
your demon, if you command one, and place him before 
me. The man that has spent years in company with in- 
carnate devils, can scarce dread the presence of a dis- 
tr.bodied fiend.” 


THE PIRATE. 


221 


This was said with a careless and desperate bitterness 
of spirit, which proved too powerfully energetic even for 
the delusions of Norna’s insanity ; and it was with a hol- 
low and tremulous voice that she asked Cle veland — “ Foi 
what, then, do you hold me, if you deny the power I have 
bought so dearly 

“ You have wisdom, mother,” said Cleveland ; “ at 
least you have art, and art is power. I hold you for one 
who knows how to steer upon the current of events, but 
I deny your power to change its course. Do not, there- 
fore, waste words in quoting terrors for which I have no 
feeling, but tell me at once, wherefore you would have 
me depart ?” 

“ Because I will have you see Minna no more,” an- 
swered Norna — “ Because Minna is the destined bride ol 
him whom men call Mordaunt Mertoun — Because if you 
depart not within twenty-four hours, utter destruction 
awaits you. In these plain words there is no metaphysi- 
cal delusion — Answer me as plainly.” 

In as plain words, then,” answered Cleveland, “ I 
will not leave these islands — not, at least, till I have seen 
Minna Troil ; and never shall your Mordaunt possess her 
while I live.” 

“ Hear him !” said Norna — “ hear a mortal man spurn 
at the means of prolonging his life ! — hear a sinful — a 
most sinful being, refuse the time which fate yet affords 
for repentance, and for the salvation of an immortal soul ! 
— Behold him how he stands erect, bold and confident in 
. his youthful strength and courage ! My eyes, unused to 
tears — even my eyes, which have so little cause to weep 
for him, are blinded with sorrow, to think what so fair a 
form will be ere the second sun set !” 

“ Mother,” said Cleveland, firmly, yet with some touch 
of sorrow in his voice, “ I in part understand your threats. 
You know more than we do of the course of the Halcyon 
— perhaps have the means (for I acknowledge you have 
shown wonderful skill of combination in such affairs) ot 
directing her cruise our way. Be it so, — I will not depart 

VOL. II. 


222 


THE PIRATE. 


from my purpose for that risk. If the frigate comes hith- 
er, we have still our shoal water to trust to ; and I think 
they will scarce cut us out with boats, as if we were a 
Spanish xebec’?.. I am therefore resolved I will hoist once 
more the flag under which I have cruised, avail ourselves 
of the thousand chances which have helped us in greater 
odds, and, at the worst, fight the vessel to the very last ; 
and, when mortal man can do no more, it is but snapping 
a pistol in the powder-room, and as we have lived, so will 
we die.” 

There was a- dead pause as Cleveland ended ; and it 
was broken by his resuming, in a softer tone — “ You have 
heard my answer, mother ; let us debate it no farther, 
but part in peace. I would willingly leave you a remem^ 
brance, that you may not forget a poor fellow to whom 
your services have been useful, and who parts with you in 
no unkindness, however unfriendly you are to his dearest, 
interests. — Nay, do not shun to accept such a trifle,” he 
said, forcing upon Norna the little silver enchased box, 
which had been once the subject of strife betwixt Mertouq 
and him ; “ it is not for the sake of the metal, which I 
know you value not, but simply as a memorial that you 
have met him of whom many a strange tale will hereafter 
be told in the seas which he has traversed.” 

“ I accept your gift,” said Norna, “ in token that, if 1 
have in aught been accessary to your fate, it was as the 
involuntary and grieving agent of other powers. Well did 
you say we direct not the current of the events, which 
hurry us forward, and render our utmost efforts unavail- 
ing ; even as the wells of Tuftiloe* can wheel the stoutest 
vessel round and round, in despite of either sail or steer- 
age. — Pacolet !” she exclaimed, in a louder voice, “ what, 
ho • —Pacolet !” 


* A well, in the language of those seas, denotes one of the whirlpools, or 
circular eddies, which wheel and boil with astonishing strength, and are very 
dangerous. Hence the distinction, in old English, betwixt wells and waves, the 
latter signifying the direct onward course of the tide, and the former the smooth, 
glassy, oily-loojcing whirlpools, whose strength seems to the eye almost irre 
sistible. 


THE PIRATE. 


223 


A large stone, which lay at the side of the wall of the 
hovel, fell as she spoke, and to Cleveland’s surprise, if 
not somewhat to his fear, the misshapen form of the dwarf 
was seen, like some overgrown reptile, extricating himself 
out of a subterranean passage, the entrance to which the 
stone had covered. 

Norna, as if impressed by what Cleveland had said on 
the subject of her supernatural pretensions, was so far 
from endeavouring to avail herself of this opportunity to 
enforce them, that she hastened to explain the phenome- 
non he had witnessed. 

“ Such passages,” she said, to which the entrances 
are carefully concealed, are frequently found in these 
islands — the places of retreat of the ancient inhabitants, 
where they sought refuge from the rage of the Normans, 
the pirates of that day. It was that you might avail your- 
self of this, in case of need, that I brought you hither. 
Should you observe signs of pursuit, you may either lurk 
in the bowels of the earth until it has passed by, or escape, 
if you will, through the farther entrance near the lake, by 
which Pacolet entered but now. — And now farewell ! 
Think on what I have said ; for as sure as you now move 
and breathe a living man, so surely is your doom fixed 
and sealed, unless, within four-and-twenty hours, you have 
doubled the Burgh-head.” 

“ Farewell, mother !” said Cleveland, as she departed, 
bending a look upon him, in which, as he could perceive 
by the lamp, sorrow was mingled with displeasure. 

The interview, which thus concluded, left a strong ef- 
fect even upon the mind of Cleveland, accustomed as he 
was to imminent dangers and to hair-breadth escapes. 
He in vain attempted to shake off the impression left by 
the words of Norna, which he felt the more powerful, be- 
cause they were in a great measure divested of her wont- 
ed mystical tone, which he contemned. A thousand times 
he regretted that he had from time to time delayed the 
resolution, winch he had long adopted, to quit his dreadful 
and dangerous trade ; and as often he firmly determined, 
that, could he but see Minna Troil once more, were it but 


224 


THE PIRATE. 


for a last farewell, he would leave the sloop, as soon as 
his comrades were extricated from tlieir perilous situation, 
endeavour to obtain the benefit of the King’s pardon, and 
distinguish himself, if possible, in some more honourable 
course of warfare. 

This resolution, to which he again and again pledged 
himself, had at length a sedative effect on his mental 
perturbation, and. wrapt in his cloak, he enjoyed, for a 
time, that imperfect repose which exhausted nature de- 
mands as her tribute, even from those who are situated on 
the verge of the most imminent danger. But how far 
soever the guilty may satisfy his own mind, and stupify 
the feelings of remorse, by such a conditional repentance, 
we may well question whether it is not, in the sight of 
Heaven, rather a presumptuous aggravation, than an ex- 
piation of his sins. 

When Cleveland awoke, the grey dawn was already 
mingling with the twilight of an Orcadian night. He 
found himself on the verge of a beautiful sheet of water, 
which, close by the place where he had rested, was nearly 
divided by two tongues of land that approach each other 
from the opposing sides of the lake, and are in some de- 
gree united by the Bridge of Broisgar, a long causeway, 
containing openings to permit the flow and reflux of the 
tide. Behind him, and fronting to the Bridge, stood that 
remarkable semicircle of huge upright stones, which has 
no rival in Britain, excepting the inimitable monument at 
Stonehenge. These immense blocks of stone, all of them 
above twelve feet, and several being even fourteen or fif- 
teen feet in height, stood around the pirate in the grey 
light of the dawning, like the phantom forms of antedi- 
luvian giants, who, shrouded in the habiliments of the 
dead, came to revisit, by this pale light, the earth which 
they had plagued by their oppression and polluted by theii 
sins, till they brought down upon it the vengeance of long- 
suflering Heaven.^^ 

Cleveland was less interested by this singular monu 
ment of antiquity than by the distant view of Stromness, 
which he could as yet scarce discover. He lost no time in 


THE PIRATE. 


225 


Striking a light, by the assistance of one of his pistols, and 
some wet fern supplied him with fuel sufficient to make 
the appointed signal. It had been earnestly watched for 
on board the sloop ; for Goffe’s incapacity became daily 
more apparent ; and even his most steady adherents 
agreed it would be best to submit to Cleveland’s command 
till they got back to the West Indies. 

Bunce, who came with the boat to bring off his favour- 
ite commander, danced, cursed, shouted, and spouted for 
joy, when he saw him once more at freedom. “ They 
had already,” he said, “ made some progress in victual- 
ling the sloop, and they might have made more, but for 
that drunken old swab Goffe, who minded nothing but 
splicing the main-brace.” 

The boat’s crew were inspired with the same enthusi- 
asm, and rowed so hard, that, although the tide was against 
them, and the air of wind failed, they soon placed Cleve- 
land once more on the quarter-deck of the vessel which 
it was his misfortune to command. 

The first exercise of the Captain’s power was to make 
known to Magnus Troil that he was at full freedom to 
depart — that he was willing to make him any compensa- 
tion in his power, for the interruption of his voyage to 
Kirkwall ; and that Captain Cleveland was desirous, if 
agreeable to Mr. Troil, to pay his repects to him on board 
his brig — thank him for former favours, and apologize for 
the circumstances attending his detention. 

To Bunce, who, as the most civilized of the crew, 
Cleveland had entrusted this message, the old plain-deal- 
ing Udaller made the following answer : “ Tell your 

Captain that I should be glad to think he had never stop- 
ped any one upon the high sea, save such as have suffered 
as little as I liave. Say, too, that if we are to continue 
friends, we shall be most so at a distance ; for I like the 
sound of his cannon balls as little by sea, as he would like 
the whistle of a bullet by land from my rifle-gun. Say, 
in a word, that I am sorry I was mistaken in him, and 
that he would have done better to have reserved for the 
Spaniard the usage he is bestowing on his countrymen.” 


226 


THE PIRATE. 


‘‘ And so that is your message, old Snapcholerick ?” 
said Bunce — “ now, stap my vitals if I have not a mind 
to do your errand for you over the left shoulder, and 
teach you more respect for gentlemen of fortune 1 But I 
wont, and chiefly for the sake of your two pretty wenches, 
not to mention my old friend Claud Halcro, the very vis- 
age of whom brought back all the old days of scene- 
shifting and candle-snuffing. So good morrow to you, 
Gaffer Seal’s-cap, and all is said that need pass be- 
tween us.” 

No sooner did the boat put off with the pirates, who 
left the brig, and now returned to their own vessel, than 
Magnus, in order to avoid reposing unnecessary confidence 
in the honour of these gentlemen of fortune, as they call- 
ed themselves, got his brig under way ; and, the wind 
coming favourably round, and increasing as the sun rose, 
he crowded all sail for Scalpa-flow, intending there to dis- 
embark and go by land to Kirkwall, where he expected 
to meet his daughters and his friend Claud Halcro. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

Now, Emma, now the last reflection make, 

What thou wouldst follow, what thou must forsake. 

By our il!-omen’d stars and adverse Heaven, 

No middle object to thy choice is given. 

Henry and Emma. 


The sun was high in heaven ; the boats were busily 
fetching off from the shore the promised supply of pro- 
visions and water, which, as many fishing skiffs were em- 
ployed in the service, were got on board with unexpected 
speed, and stowed away by the crew of the sloop, with 
equal despatch. All worked with good will ; for all, save 
Cleveland himself, were weary of a coast, where every 
moment increased their danger, and where, which they es- 


THE PIRATE. 


2i7 


teemed a worse misfortune, there was no booty to be won. 
Bunce and Derrick took the immediate direction of this 
duty, while Cleveland, walking the deck alone, and in 
silence, only interfered from time to time, to give some 
order which circumstances required, and then relapsed 
into his own sad reflections. 

There are two sorts of men whom situations of guilt, 
terror, and commotion, bring forward as prominent agents. 
The first are spirits so naturally moulded and fitted for 
deeds of horror, that they stalk forth from their lurking- 
places like actual demons, to work in their native element, 
as the hideous apparition of the Bearded Man came forth 
at Versailles, on the memorable 5th October, 1789, the 
delighted executioner of the victims deliv’^ered up to him 
by a blood-thirsty rabble. But Cleveland belonged to 
the second class of these unfortunate beings, who are in- 
volved in evil rather by the concurrence of external cir- 
cumstances than by natural inclination, being, indeed, one 
in whom his first engaging in this lawless mode of life, as 
the follower of his father, nay, perhaps, even his pursuing 
it as his father’s avenger, carried with it something of mit- 
igation and apology one also who often considered his 
guilty situation with horror, and had made repeated, though 
ineffectual, efforts to escape from it. 

Such thoughts of remorse were now rolling in his mind, 
and he may be forgiven, if recollections of Minna min- 
gled with and aided them. He looked around, too, on 
his mates, and, profligate and hardened as he knew them 
to ^e, he could not think of their paying the penalty ol 
his obstinacy. “ We shall be ready to sail with the ebb 
tide,” he said to himself — “ why should I endanger these 
men, by detaining them till the hour of danger, predicted 
by that singular woman, shall arrive ? Her intelligence, 
howsoever acquired, has been always strangely accurate ; 
and her warning was as solemn as if a mother were to 
apprize an erring son of his crimes, and of his approach- 
ing punishment. Besides, what chance is there that I can 
again see Minna ? She is at Kirkwall, doubtless, and to 
hold my course thither would be to steer right upon the 
22 


228 


THE PIRATE. 


rocks. No, I will not endanger these poor fellows — 
will sail with the ebb tide. On the desolate Hebrides, oi 
on the north-west coast of Ireland, I will leave the vessel^ 
and return hither in some disguise — ^yet, why should 1 re- 
turn, since it will perhaps be only to see Minna the bride 
of Mordaunt ? No — let the vessel sail with this ebb tide 
without me. I will abide and take my fate.” 

His meditations were here interrupted by Jack Bunct, 
who, hailing him noble Captain, said they were ready to 
sail when he pleased. 

“ When you please, Bunce ; for I shall leave the com- 
mand with you, and go ashore at Stromness,” said Cleve- 
land. 

“ You shall do no such matter, by Heaven !” answer- 
ed Bunce. “ The command with me, truly ! and how 
the devil am I to get the crew to obey me 1 Why, even 
Dick Fletcher rides rusty on me now and then. You 
know well enough that, without you, we shall be all at each 
other’s throats in half an hour ; and, if you desert us, 
what a rope’s end does it signify whether we are destroy - 
ed by the king’s cruisers, or by each other ? Come, 
come, noble Captain, there are black-eyed girls enough in 
the world, but where will you find so tight a sea-boat as 
the little Favourite here, manned as she is with a set oi 
tearing lads, 

‘ Fit to disturb the peace of all the world, 

And rule it when ’tis wildest?^” 

“ You are a precious fool. Jack Bunce,” said Cleye 
land, half angry, and, in despite of himself, half diverted 
by the false tones and exaggerated gesture of the stage 
struck pirate. 

“ It may be so, noble Captain,” answered Bunce, 

and it may be that I have my comrades in my folly. 
Here are yon, now, going to play All for Love, and the 
World well Lost, and yet you cannot bear a harmless 
bounce in blank verse — Well, I can talk prose for the 
matter, for I have news enough to tell — and strange news 
too — ay, and stirring news to boot.” 


THE PIRATE. 


229 


** Well, prithee deliver them (to speak thy own cant) 
like a man of this world.” 

“ The Stromness fishers will accept nothing for their 
provisions and trouble,” said Bunce — “ there is a won- 
der for you !” 

“ And for what reason, I pray ?” said Cleveland ; “ it 
is the first time I have ever heard of cash being refused 
at a sea-port.” 

“ True — they commonly lay the charges on as thick 
as if they were calking. But here is the matter. The 
owner of the brig yonder, the father of your fair Imoin- 
da, stands paymaster, by way of thanks for the civility 
with which we treated his daughters, and that we may 
not meet our due, as he calls it, on these shores.” 

‘‘ It is like the frank-hearted old Udaller !” said Cleve- 
land ; “ but is he at Stromness ? I thought he was 
to have crossed the island for Kirkwall.” 

“ He did so purpose,” said Bunce ; “ but more folks 
than King Duncan change the course of their voyage. 
He was no sooner ashore than he was met with by a med- 
dling old witch of these parts, who has her finger in every 
man’s pie, and by her counsel he changed his purpose ol 
going to Kirkwall, and lies at anchor for the present in 
yonder white house, that you may see with your glass up 
the lake yonder. I am told the old woman clubbed also 
to pay for the sloop’s stores. Why she should shell out 
the boards I cannot conceive an idea, except that she is 
said to be a witch, and may befriend us as so many 
devils.” 

“ But who told you all this said Cleveland, withou 
using his spy-glass, or seeming so much interested in the 
news as his comrade had expected. 

“ Why. ’ replied Bunce, “ I made a trip ashore this 
morning to the village, and had a can with an old ac- 
quaintance, who had been sent by Master Troil to look 
after matters, and I fished it all out of him, and more too 
than I am desirous of telling you, noble Captain ” 

VOL. II. 


230 


THE PIRATE. 


And who is your intelligencer ?” said Cleveland ; 
‘ has he got no name ?” 

“ Why, he is an old, fiddling, foppish acquaintance of 
mine, called Halcro, if you must know,” said Bunce. 

“ Halcro !” echoed Cleveland, his eyes sparkling with 
surprise — “ Claud Halcro ? — why, he went ashore at 
Inganess with Minna and her sister — Where are they ?” 

‘‘ Why, that is just what I did not want to tell you,” 
replied the confidant — “ yet hang me if I can help it, for 
I cannot balk a fine situation. — That start had a fine 
effect — O ay, and the spy-glass is turned on the House of 
Stennis now ! — Well, yonder they are,’ it must be con- 
fessed — indiff’erently well guarded too. Some of the old 
witch’s people are come over from that mountain of an 
island — Hoy, as they call it ; and the old gentleman has 
got some fellows under arms himself. But what of all 
that, noble Captain ! — give you but the word, and we 
snap up the wenches to-night — clap them under hatches 
— man the capstan by daybreak — up top-sails — and sail 
with the morning tide.” 

“ You sicken me with your villany,” said Cleveland, 
turning away from him. 

“ Umph ! — villany, and sicken you !” said Bunce — 
“ Now, pray, what have I said but what has been done a 
thousand times by gentlemen of fortune like ourselves ?” 

“ Mention it not again,” said Cleveland ; then took a 
turn along the deck, in deep meditation, and, coming back 
to Bunce, took him by the hand, and said, “ Jack, I will 
see her once more.” 

“ With all my heart,” said Bunce, sullenly. 

“ Once more will I see her, and it may be to abjure at 
her feet this cursed trade, and expiate my offences ” 

“ At the gallows !” said Bunce, completing the sen- 
tence — “ with all my heart ! — confess and be hanged is a 
most reverend proverb.” 

“ Nay — ^but, dear Jack !” said Cleveland. 

“ Dear Jack !” answered Bunce, in the same sullen 
tone — “ a dear sight you have been to dear Jack. But 
nold your own course — I have done with caring for you 


THE PIRATE. 


231 


for ever — should but sicken you with my villanous couii- 

‘‘ Now must I. sooth this silly fellow as if he were a 
spoiled child,” said Cleveland, speaking at Bunce, but not 
to him ; “ and yet he has sense enough, and bravery 
enough too ; and one would think, kindness enough to 
know that men don’t pick their words during a gale of 
wind.” 

“ Why, that’s true, Clement,” said Bunce, “ and there 
is my hand uj»on it — And, now I think upon’t, you shall 
have your last interview, for it’s out of my line to prevent 
a parting scene ; and what signifies a tide — we can sail by 
tormorrow’s ebb as well as by this.” 

Cleveland sighed, for Norna’s prediction rushed on his 
mind ; but the opportunity of a last meeting with Minna 
was too tempting to be resigned either for presentiment or 
prediction. 

‘‘ I will go presently ashore to the place where they 
all are,” said Bunce ; “ and the payment of these stores 
shall serve me for a pretext ; and 1 will carry any letters 
or message from you to Minna with the dexterity of a valet 
de chambre.” 

“ But they have armed men — you may be in danger,” 
said Cleveland. 

“ Not a whit — not a whit,” replied Bunce. “ I pro- 
tected the wenches when they were in my power ; I 
warrant their father will neither wrong me, nor see me 
wronged.” 

“ You say true,” said Cleveland, “ it is not in his na- 
ture. I will instantly write a note to Minna.” And he 
ran down to the cabin for that purpose, where he wasted 
much paper, ere, with a trembling hand, and throbbing 
heart, he achieved such a letter as he hoped might prevail 
on Minna to permit him a farewell meeting on the succeed- 
ing morning. 

His adherent, Bunce, in the meanwhile, sougct out 
Fletcher, of whose support to second any motion what- 
ever. he accounted himself perfectly sure ; and, followed 
by this trusty satellite, he intruded himself on the awful 


232 


THE ipiUATE. 


presence of Hawkins the boatswain, and Derrick the 
quarter-master, who were regaling themselves with a can 
of rumbo, after the fatiguing duty of the day. 

“ Here comes he can tell us,” said Derrick. — So, 
Master Lieutenant, for so we must call you now, I -think, 
let us have a peep into your counsels — When will the 
anchor be a-trip ?” 

‘‘ When it pleases heaven, Master Quarter-master,” 
answered Bunce, “ for I know no more than the stern- 
post.” 

“ Why, d— -n my buttons,” said Derrick, do we not 
weigh this tide ?” 

“ Or to-morrow’s tide, at farthest said the Boat- 
swain — “ Why, what have we been slaving the whole com- 
pany for, to get all these stores aboard ?” 

“ Gentlemen,” said Bunce, “ you are to know that 
Cupid has laid our Captain on board, carried the vessel, 
and nailed down his wits under hatches.” 

“ What sort of play-stufFis all this?” said the Boatswain, 
gruffly. ‘‘ If you have anything to tell us, say it in a word, 
like a man.” 

“ Howsomdever,” said Fletcher, ‘‘ 1 always think 
Jack Bunce speaks like a man, and acts like a man too — 
and so, d’ye see ” 

“ Hold your peace, dear Dick, best of bully-backs, be 
silent,” said Bunce — “ Gentlemen, in one word, the 
Captain is in love.” 

Why, now, only think of that !”• said the Boatswain ; 
“ not but that I have been in love as often as any man, 
when the ship was laid up.” 

“ Well, but,” continued Bunce, ‘‘ Captain Cleveland 
is in love — Yes — Prince Volsci us is in love ; and, though 
that’s the cue for laughing on the stage, it is no laughing 
matter here. He expects to meet the girl to-morrow, for 
the last time ; and that, we all know, leads to another 
meeting, and another, and so on till the Halcyon is down 
on us, and then we may look for more kicks than half- 
pence.” 


THE PIRATE. 


233 


« By said the Boatswain, with a sounding oath 

we’ll have a mutiny, and not allow him to go ashore, — - 
eh. Derrick ?” 

“ And the best way too,” said Derrick. 

“ What d’ye think of it. Jack Bunce ?” said Fletcher, 
in whose ears this counsel sounded very sagely, but who 
still bent a wistful look upon his companion. 

Why, look ye, gentlemen,” said Bunce, “ I will 
mutiny none, and stap my vitals if any of you shall.” 

“ Why then I won’t, for one,” said Fletcher ; “ but 

what are we to do, since howsoindever ” 

“ Stopper your jaw, Dick, will you ?” said Bunce. 
“ Now, Boatswain, 1 am partly of your mind, that the 
Captain must be brought to reason by a little wholesome 
force. But you all know he has the spirit of a lion, and 
will do nothing unless he is allowed to hold on his own 
course. Well, I’ll go ashore and make this appointment. 
The girl comes to the rendezvous in the morning, and the 
Captain goes ashore — we take a good boat’s crew with 
us, to row against tide and current, and we will be ready 
at the signal, to jump ashore and bring off the Captain 
and the girl, whether they will or no. The pet-child 
will not quarrel with us, since we bring off his whirligig 
along with him ; and if he is still fractious, why, we will 
weigh anchor without his orders, and let him come to his 
senses at leisure, and know his friends another time.” 

“ Why this has a face with it. Master Derrick,” said 
Hawkins. 

“ Jack Bunce is always right,” said Fletcher ; “ how- 
somdever, the Captain will shoot some of us, that is cer • 
tain.” 

“ Hold your jaw, Dick,” said Bunce ; “ pray who the 
devil cares, do you think, whether you are shot or hanged ?* 
“ Why, it don’t much argufy for the matter of that,” 

replied Dick ; “ howsomdever ” 

“ Be quiet, I tell you,” said his inexorable patron, 
and hear me out. — We will take him at unawares, so 
that lie shall neither have time to use cutlass nor pops : 

VOL. II. 


234 


THE PIRATE. 


and I myself, for the dear love I bear him, will be the firsi. 
to lay him on. his back. There is a nice tight-going bit 
of a pinnace, that is a consort of this chase of the Cap- 
tain’s, — if I have an opportunity. I’ll snap her up on my 
own account.” 

“ Yes, yes,” said Derrick, “ let you alone for keeping 
on the look-out for your own comforts.” 

Faith, nay,” said Bunce, “ I only snatch at them 
when they come fairly in my way, or are purchased by 
dint of my own wit ; and none of you could have fallen 
on such a plan as this. We shall have the Captain with 
us, head, hand, and heart and all, besides making a scene 
fit to finish a comedy. . So I will go ashore to make the 
appointment, and do you possess some of the gentlemen 
who are still sober, and fit to be trusted, with the know- 
ledge of our intentions.” 

Bunce, with his friend Fletcher, departed a<;cordingly, 
and the two veteran pirates remained looking at each 
other in silence, until the Boatswain spoke at last. 
“ Blow me, Derrick, if 1 like these two dalfadandilly young 
fellows; they are not the true breed. Why, they are no 
more like the rovers I have known, than this sloop is to a 
first-rate. Why, there was old Sharpe that read prayers 
to his ship’s company every Sunday, what would he have 
said to have heard it proposed to bring two wenches on 
board ?” 

“ And what would tough old Black ‘Beard have said,” 
answered his companion, “ if they had expected to keep 
them to themselves ? They deserve to be made to walk 
the plank for their impudence ; or to be tied back to back 
and set a-diving, and I care not how soon.” 

“ Ay, but who is to command the ship then ?” said 
Hawkins. 

“ Why, what ails you at old Goffe ?” answered Derrick. 

“ Why, he has sucked the monkey so long and so 
often,” said the Boatswain, “ that the best of him is 
buffed. He is little better than an old woman when he 
is sober, and he is roaring mad when he is drunk — we 
have had enough of Goffe.” 


THE PIRATE. 


235 


“ Why, then, what d’ye say to yourself or to me, Boat- 
swain ?” demanded the Quarter-master. “ I am content 
lo loss up for it.” 

“ Rot it, no,” answered the Boatswain, after a mo- 
ment’s consideration ; “ if we were within reach of the 
trade-winds, we might either of us make a shift ; but it 
will take all Cleveland’s navigation to get us there ; and 
so, I think, there is nothing like Bunce’s project for the 
present. Hark, he calls for the boat — I must go on deck 
and have her lowered for his honour, d — n his eyes.” 

The boat was lowered accordingly, made its voyage up 
the lake with safety, and landed Bunce within a few hun- 
dred yards of the old mansion-house of Stennis. Upon 
arriving in front of the house, he found that hasty meas- 
ures had been taken to put it in a state of defence, the 
lower windows being barricaded, with places left for use 
of musketry, and a ship-gun being placed so as to com- 
mand the entrance, which was besides guarded by two 
sentinels. Bunce demanded admission at the gate, 
which was briefly and unceremoniously refused, with an 
exhortation to him, at the same time, to be gone about his 
business before worse came of it. As he continued 
however, importunately to insist on seeing some one of 
the family, and stated his business to be of the most ur- 
gent nature, Claud Halcro at length appeared, and with 
more peevishness than belonged to his usual manner, that 
admirer of glorious John expostulated with his old ac- 
quaintance upon his pertinacious folly. 

“ You are,” he said, “ like foolish moths fluttering 
about a candle, which is sure at last to consume you.” 

“ And you,” said Bunce, “ are a set of stingless 
drones, whom we can smoke out of your defences at our 
pleasure, with half-a-dozen of hand-grenades.” 

“ Smoke a fool’s head !” said Halcro ; “ take my ad- 
vice, and mind your own matters, or there will De those 
upon you will smoke you to purpose. Either begone, or 
tell me in two words what you want ; for you are like to 
receive no welcome here save from a blunderbuss. We 
are men enough of ourselves , and here is young Mor- 


236 


THE PIRATE. 


daunt Mertoun come from Hoy, whom your Captain so 
nearly murdered.’’ 

“ Tush, man,” said Bunce, ‘‘ he did but let out a lit- 
tle malapert blood.” 

“ We want no such phlebotomy here,” said Claud 
Halcro ; “ and, besides, your patient turns out to be 
nearer allied to us than either you or we thought of ; so 
you may think how little welcome the Captain or any of 
his crew are like to be here.” 

“ Well ; but what if I bring money for the stores sent 
on board ?” 

“ Keep it till it is asked of you,” said Halcro. “ There 
are two bad paymasters — he that pays too soon, and he 
that does not pay at all.” 

“ Well, then, let me at least give our thanks to the 
donor,” said Bunce. 

“ Keep them, too, till they are asked for,” answered 
the poet. 

“ So this is all the welcome I have of you for old ac- 
quaintance’ sake ?” said Bunce. 

“ Why, what can I do for you. Master Altamont?” 
said Halcro, somewhat moved. — “ If young Mordaunt 
had had his own will, he would have welcomed you with 
^ the red Burgundy, Number a thousand.’ For God’s 
sake begone, else the stage direction will be. Enter guard, 
and seize Altamont.” 

“ I will not give you the trouble,” said Bunce, “ but 
will make my exit instantly. — Stay a moment — I had 
almost forgot that I have a slip of paper for the tallest of 
your girls there — Minna, ay, Minna is her name. It is a 
farewell from Captain Cleveland — you cannot refuse to 
give It her?” 

“ Ah, poor fellow !” said Halcro — “ I comprehend • 
I comprehend — Farewell, fair Armida — 

^Mid pikes and 'mid bullets, 'mid tempests and fire, 

The danger is less than in hopeless desire !' 

Tell me but this — is there poetry in it 


THE PIRATE. 


237 


“ Chokefull to the seal, with song, sonnet, and elegy,’ 
answered Bunce ; “ but let her have it cautiously and 
secretly.” 

‘‘ Tush, man ! — teach me to deliver a billet-doux ! — 
me, who have been in the Wits’ Coffee-house, and have 
seen all the toasts of the Kit-Cat Club ! — Minna shall 
have it, then, for old acquaintance’ sake, Mr. Altamont, 
and for your Captain’s sake, too, who has less of the core 
of devil about him than his trade requires. There can 
be no harm in a farewell letter.” 

“ Farewell then, old boy, for ever and a day!” said 
Bunce ; and seizing the poet’s hand, gave it so hearty a 
gripe, that he left him roaring, and shaking his fist, like a 
dog when a hot cinder has fallen on his foot. 

Leaving the rover to return on board the vessel, we 
remain with the family of Magnus Troil, assembled at 
their kinsman’s mansion of Stennis, where they maintain- 
ed a constant and careful watch against surprise. 

Mordaunt Mertoun had been received with much kind- 
ness by Magnus Troil, when he came to his assistance, 
with a small party of Norna’s dependants, placed by her 
under his command. The Udaller was easily satisfied that 
the reports instilled into his ears by the dagger, zealous 
to augment his favour towards his more profitable cus- 
tomer Cleveland, by diminishing that of Mertoun, were 
without foundation. They had, indeed, been confirmedby 
the good Lady Glowrowrum, and by common fame, both 
of whom were pleased to represent Mordaunt Mertoun as 
an arrogant pretender to the favour of the sisters of Burgh- 
Westra, who only hesitated, sultan-like, on whom he 
should bestow the handkerchief. But common fame, 
Magnus considered, was a common liar, and he was some- 
times disposed (where scandal was concerned) to regard 
the good Lady Glowrowrum as rather an uncommon spec- 
imen of the same genus. He therefore received Mordaunt 
once more into full favour, listened with much surprise 
to the claim which Nonia laid to the young man’s duty, 
and with no less interest to her intention of surrendering 
to him the considerable property which she had inherited 


238 


THE PIRATE. 


from her father. Nay, it is even probable that, though he 
gave no immediate answer to her hints concerning an 
union betwixt his eldest daughter and her heir, he might 
think such an alliance recommended, as well by the young 
man’s personal merits, as by the chance it gave of reunit- 
ing the very large estate which had been divided betwixt 
his own father and that of Norna. At all events, the 
Udaller received his young friend with much kindness, 
and he and the proprietor of the mansion joined in intrust- 
ing to him, as the youngest and most active of the party, 
the charge of commanding the night-watch, and relieving 
the sentinels around the House of Stennis. 


CHAPTER XX. 


Of an outlawe, this is the lawe — 

That men him take and bind, 

Without pitie hang’d to be, 

And waive with the w'ind. 

The Ballad of the Nut Brown Maid 

Mordaunt had caused the sentinels who had been on 
duty since midnight to be relieved ere the peep of day, 
and having given directions that the guard should be again 
changed at sunrise, he had retired to a small parlour, 
and, placing his arms beside him, was slumbering in an 
easy-chair, when he felt himself pulled by the watch- 
cloak in which he was enveloped. 

“ Is it sunrise,” said he, “ already ?” as, starting up, 
he discovered the first beams lying level upon the horizon. 

“ Mordaunt I” said a voice, every note of which thrill 
ed to his heart. 

He tamed his eyes on the speaker, and Brenda Troil, 
to his joyful astonishment, stood before him. As he was 
about to address her eagerly, he was checked by observ- 


THE PIRATE. 


239 


ing the signs of sorrow and discomposure in her pale 
cheeks, trembling lips, and brimful eyes. 

‘‘ Mordaunt,” she said, “ you must do Minna and me 
a favour — you must allow us to leave the house quietly, 
and without alarming any one, in order to go as far as the 
Standing Stones of Stennis.” 

“ What freak can this be, dearest Brenda ?” said Mor- 
daunt, much amazed at the request — “ some Orcadian 
observance of superstition, perhaps ; but the time is too 
dangerous, and my charge from your father too strict, that 
I should permit you to pass without his consent. Con- 
sider, dearest Brenda, I am a soldier on duty, and must 
obey orders.” 

“ Mordaunt,” said Brenda, ‘‘ this is no jesting matter 
— Minna’s reason, nay, Minna’s life, depends on your 
giving us this permission.” 

“ And for what purpose ?” said Mordaunt ; “ let me 
at least know that.” 

“ For a wild and a desperate purpose,” replied Bren- 
da — “ It is that she may meet Cleveland.” 

“ Cleveland !” said Mordaunt — “ should the villain 
come ashore, he shall be welcomed with a shower of rifle- 
balls. Let me within a hundred yards of him,” he 
added, grasping his piece, “ and all the mischief he has 
done me shall be balanced with an ounce bullet !” 

“ His death will drive Minna frantic,” said Brenda , 
“ and him who injures Minna, Brenda will never again 
look upon.” 

“ This is madness — raving madness !” said Mordaunt 
— “ Consider your honour — consider your duty.” 

“ I can consider nothing but Minna’s danger,” said 
Brenda, breaking into a flood of tears ; “ her former ill- 
ness was nothing to the state she has been in all night. 
She holds in her hand his letter, written in characters ol 
fire, rather than of ink, imploring her to see him, for a 
last farewell, as she would save a mortal body, and an 
immortal soul ; pledging himself for her safety ; and de- 
claring no power shall force him from the coast till he has 
seen her. — You must let us pass.” 


240 


THE PIRATE. 


“ It is impossible !” replied Mordaunt, in great perplex- 
ity — “ This ruffian has imprecations enough, doubtless 
at his fingers’ ends — but what better pledge has he to offer r 
— I cannot j)ermit Minna to go.” 

“ I suppose,” said Brenda, somewhat reproachfully, 
while she dried her tears, yet still continued sobbing, 
“ that there is something in what Norna spoke of betwixt 
Minna and. you ; and that you are too jealous of this poor 
wretch, to allow him even to speak with her an instant 
before his departure.” 

“ You are unjust,” said Mordaunt, hurt, and yet some- 
what flattered by her suspicions, — “ you are as unjust as 
you are imprudent. You know — you cannot but know — 
that Minna is chiefly dear to me as your sister. Tell me, 
Brenda — and tell me truly — if I aid you in this folly, 
have you no suspicion of the Pirate’s faith ?” 

“ No, none,” said Brenda ; “ if I had any, do you 
think I would urge you thus ? he is wild and unhappy, but 
I think w.e may in this trust him.” 

“ Is the appointed place the Standing Stones, and the 
time daybreak?” again demanded Mordaunt. 

“ It is, and the time is come,” said Brenda, — “ for 
Heaven’s sake let us depart !” 

“ I will myself,” said Mordaunt, “ relieve the sentinel 
at the front door for a few minutes, and suffer you to pass. 
— You wdll not protract this interview, so full of danger ?” 

“ We will not,” said Brenda ; “ and you, on your 
part, will not avail yourself of this unhappy man’s ven- 
turing hither, to harm or to seize him ?” 

Rely on my honour,” said Mordaunt — “ he shall 
have no harm, unless he offers any.” 

“ Then I go to call my sister,” said Brenda, and 
quickly left the apartment. 

Mordaunt considered the matter for an instant, and then 
going to the sentinel at the front door, he desired him to 
run instantly to the main-guard, and order the whole to turn 
out with their arms — to see the order obeyed, and to re- 
turn when they were in readiness. Meantime, he him- 
self, he said, would remain upon the post. During the 


THE PIRATE. 


241 


interval of the sentinel’s absence, the front door was 
slowly opened, and Minna and Brenda appeared, muffled 
in their mantles. The former leaned on her sister, and 
kept her face bent on the ground as one who felt asham- 
ed of the step she was about to take. Brenda also pass- 
ed her lover in silence, but threw back upon him a look 
of gratitude and affection^ which doubled, if possible, his 
anxiety for their safety. 

The sisters, in the meanwhile, passed out of sight ol 
the house ; when Minna, whose step, till that time, had 
been faint and feeble, began to erect her person, and to 
walk with a pace so firm and so swift, that Brenda, who 
had some difficulty to keep up with her, could not for- 
bear remonstrating on the imprudence of hurrying her 
spirits, and exhausting her force, by such unnecessary 
haste. 

“ Fear not, my dearest sister,” said Minna ; “ the 
spirit which I now feel will, and must, sustain me through 
the dreadful interview. I could not but move with a 
drooping head, and dejected pace, while I was in view ot 
one who must necessarily deem me deserving of his pity 
or his scorn. But you know, my dearest Brenda, and 
Mordaunt shall also know, that the love I bore to that 
unhappy man, was as pure as the rays of that sun, that is 
now reflected on the waves. And I dare attest that glo- 
rious sun, and yonder blue heaven, to bear me witness, 
that, but to urge him to change his unhappy course of life, 

I had not, for all the temptations this round world holds, 
ever consented to see him more.” 

As she spoke thus, in a tone which aflbrded much con- , 
fidence to Brenda, the sisters attained the summit of a 
rising ground, whence they commanded a full view of the 
Orcadian Stonehenge, consisting of a huge circle and 
semicircle of the Standing Stones, as they are called, which 
already glimmered a greyish white in the rising sun, and 
orojected far to the westward their long gigantic shad- 
ows. At another time, the scene would have operated 
powerfully on the imaginative mind of Minna, and i» 
terested the curiosity at least of her less sensitive sister 

VOL. II. 


242 


THE PIRATE. 


But, at this moment, neither was at leisure to receive the 
impressions which this stupendous monument of antiquity 
is so well calculated to impress on the feelings of those 
who behold it ; for they saw, in the lower lake, beneath 
what is termed the Bridge of Broisgar, a boat well man- 
ned and armed, which had disembarked one of its crew, 
who advanced alone, and wrapped in a naval cloak, to- 
wards that monumental circle which they themselves were 
about to reach from another quarter. 

“ They are many, and they are armed,” said the start- 
led Brenda, in a whisper to her sister. 

“ It is for precaution’s sake,” answered Minna, “ which, 
alas ! their condition renders but too necessary. Fear no 
treachery from him — that, at least, is not his vice.” 

As she spoke, or shortly afterwards, she attained the 
centre of the circle, on which, in the midst of the tall 
erect pillars of rude stone that are raised around, lies one 
flat and prostrate, supported by short stone pillars, ol 
which some reliques are still visible, that had once served, 
perhaps, the purpose of an altar. 

“ Here,” she said, “ in heathen times, (if we may be- 
lieve legends, which have cost me but too dear,) our 
ancestors offered sacrifices to heathen deities — and here 
will I, from my soul, renounce, abjure, and offer up to a 
better and a more merciful God than was known to them, 
the vain ideas with which my youthful imagination has 
been seduced.” 

She stood by the prostrate table of stone, and saw 
Cleveland advance towards her, with a timid pace, and 
a downcast look, as different from his usual character and 
bearing, as Minna’s high air and lofty demeanour, and 
calm contemplative posture, were distant from those of the 
lovelorn and broken-hearted maiden, whose weight had 
almost borne down the support of her sister as she left the 
House of Stennis. If the belief of those is true, who as- 
sign these singular monuments exclusively to the Druids, 
Minna might have seemed the Haxa, or high priestess OJ 
the order, from whom some champion of the tribe ex- 
pected inauguration. Or, if we hold the circles of Gothic 


THE PIRATE. 


243 


and Scandinavian origin, she might have seemed a descend' 
ed Vision of Freya, the spouse of the Thundering Deity, 
before whom some bold Sea-king or champion bent with 
an awe, which no mere mortal terror could have inflicted 
upon him. Brenda, overwhelmed with inexpressible fear 
and doubt, remained a pace or tw’o behind, anxiously ob- 
serving the motions of Cleveland, and attending to noth- 
ing around, save to him and to her sister. 

Cleveland approached within two yards of Minna, and 
bent his head to the ground. There was a dead pause, 
until Minna said, in a firm but melancholy tone, “ Un- 
happy man, wliy didst thou seek this aggravation of our 
woe ? Depart in peace, and may Heaven direct thee to a 
better course than that which thy life has yet held!” 

‘‘ Heaven will not aid me,” said Cleveland, “ except- 
ing by your voice. I came hither rude and wild, scarce 
knowing that my trade, my desperate trade, was more 
criminal in the sight of man or of heaven, than that of 
those privateers whom your law acknowledges. I was 
bred in it, and, but for the wishes you have encouraged 
me to form, I should have perhaps died in it, desperate 
and impenitent. O, do not throw me from you ! let me 
do something to/edeem what 1 have done amiss, and do 
not leave your own work half-finished !” 

“ Cleveland,” said Minna, “ I will not reproach you 
with abusing my inexperience, or with availing yourself 
of those delusions which the credulity of early youth had 
flung around me, and which led me to confound your fatal 
course of life with the deeds of our ancient heroes. Alas, 
when I saw your followers, that illusion was no more ! — 
But I do not upbraid you with its having existed Go, 
Cleveland ; detach yourself from those miserable wretches 
with whom you are associated, and believe me, that it 
heaven yet grants you the means of distinguishing your 
name by one good or glorious action, there are eyes left 
in those lonely islands, that will weep as much for joy as 
— as — they must now do for sorrow.” 

“ And is this all said Cleveland ; “ and may I not 
hope, that if 1 extricate myself from my present associates 


244 


THE PIRATE 


— it 1 can gain my pardon by being as bold in the right, 
as I have been too often in the wrong cause — if after a 
term, I care not how long — but still a term which may 
have an end, I can boast of having redeemed my fame — 
may I not — may I not hope that Minna may forgive what 
my God and my country shall have pardoned ?” 

“ Never, Cleveland, never !” said Minna, with the ut- 
most firmness ; “ on this spot we part, and part for ever, 
and part without longer indulgence. Think of me as ol 
one dead, if you continue as you now are ; but if, which 
may heaven grant, you change your fatal course, think of 
me then as one, whose morning and evening prayers will 
be for your happiness, though she has lost her own. — 
Farewell, Cleveland !” 

He kneeled, overpowered by his own bitter feelings, to 
lake the hand which she held out to him, and in that in- 
stant, his confidant Bunce, starting from behind one of 
the large upright pillars, his eyes wet with tears, exclaim- 
ed — 

Never saw such a parting scene on any stage ! But 
I’ll be d — d if you make your exit as you expect!” 

And so saying, ere Cleveland could employ either 
remonstrance or resistance, and indeed^ before he could 
get upon his feet, he easily secured him by pulling him 
down on his back, so that two or three of the boat’s crew 
seized him by the arms and legs, and began to hurry 
him towards the lake. Minna and Brenda shrieked, 
and attempted to fly ; but Derrick snatched up the for- 
mer with as much ease as a falcon pounces on a pigeon, 
while Bunce, with an oath or two which were intend- 
ed to be of a consolatory nature, seized on Brenda ; 
and the whole party, with two or three of the other 
pirates, who, stealing from the water-side, had accom- 
panied them on the ambuscade, began hastily to run to- 
wards the boat, which was left in charge of two of their 
number. Their course, however, was unexpectedly in- 
terrupted, and their criminal purpose, entirely frustrated 

When Mordaunt Mertoun had turned out his guard in 
arms, it was with the natural purpose of watching over the 


THE PIRATE. 


245 


safety of the two sisters. They had accordingly closely 
observed the motions of the pirates, and when they saw 
so many of them leave the boat and steal towards the 
place of rendezvous assigned to Cleveland, they naturally 
suspected treachery, and by cover of an old hollow way 
or trench, which perhaps had anciently been connected 
with the monumental circle, they had thrown themselves 
un perceived between the pirates and their boat. At the 
cries of the sisters, they started up and placed themselves 
in the way of the ruffians, presenting their pieces, which, 
notwithstanding, they dared not fire, for fear of hurting 
the young ladies, secured as they were in the rude grasp 
of the marauders. Mordaunt, however, advanced with 
tjie speed of a wild deer on Bunce, who, loath to quit his 
prey, yet unable to defend himself otherwise, turned to 
this side and that alternately, exposing Brenda to the 
blows which Mordaunt offered at him. This defence, 
however, proved in vain against a youth, possessed of the 
lightest foot and most active hand ever known in Zetland, 
and after a feint or two, Mordaunt brought the pirate to 
the ground with a stroke from the but of the carabine, 
which he dared not use otherwise. At the same time 
fire-arms were discharged on either side by those who 
were liable to no such cause of forbearance, and the 
pirates who had hold of Cleveland, dropped him, natural- 
ly enough, to provide for their own defence or retreat. 
But they only added to the numbers of their enemies ; for 
Cleveland, perceiving Minna in the arms of Derrick, 
snatched her from the ruffian with one hand, and with the 
other shot him dead on the spot. Two or three more ol 
the pirates fell or were taken, the rest fled to their boat, 
pushed off, then turned their broadside to the shore, 
and fired repeatedly on the Orcadian party, which 
they returned, with little injury on either side. Mean- 
while, Mordaunt, having first seen that the sisters were 
at liberty, and in full flight towards the house, advanc- 
ed on Cleveland with his cutlass drawn. The pirate 
presented a pistol, and calling out at the same time, — 
'‘Mordaunt, I never missed my aim,” he fired into the 

VOL. II. 


246 


THE PIRATE. 


air, and threw it into the lake ; then drew his cutlass 
brandished it round his head, and flung that also as lar 
as his arm could send it, in the same direction. Yet such 
was the universal belief of his personal strength and re- 
sources, that Mordaunt still used precaution, as, advancing 
on Cleveland, he asked if he surrendered. 

“ I surrender to no man,” said the Pirate-captain ; 
“ but you may see I have thrown away my weapons.” 

He was immediately seized by some of the Orcadians 
without his offering any resistance ; but the instant inter- 
ference of Mordaunt prevented his being roughly treated, 
or bound. The victors conducted him to a well-secured 
upper apartment iii the House of Stennis, and placed a 
sentinel at the door. Bunce and Fletcher, both of whom 
had been stretched on the field during the skirmish, were 
lodged in the same chamber ; and two prisoners, who 
appeared of lower rank, were confined in a' vault be- 
longing to the mansion. 

Without pretending to describe the joy of Magnus 
Troil, who, when awakened by the noise and firing, found 
his daughters safe, and his enemy a prisoner, we shall 
only say, it was so great, that he forgot, for the time at 
least, to inquire what circumstances were those which 
had placed them. in danger ; that he hugged Mordaunt 
to his breast a thousand times, as their preserver ; and 
swore as often by the bones of his sainted name-sake, 
that if he had a thousand daughters, so tight a lad, and 
so true a friend, should have the choice of them, del 
Lady Glowrowrurn say what she would. 

A very different scene was passing in the prison-cham- 
ber of the unfortunate Cleveland and his associates. 
The Captain sat by the window, his eyes bent on the 
prospect of the sea which it presented, and was seem 
ingly so intent on it, as to be insensible of the presence 
of the others. Jack Bunce stood meditating some ends 
of verse, in order to make his advances towards a recon 
ciliation with Cleveland ; for he began to be sensible, 
from the consequences, that the- part he had played 
towards his Captain, however well intended, was neither 


THE PIRATE. 


247 


lucky in its issue, nor likely to be well taken His ad- 
mirer and adherent Fletcher lay, half asleep, as it seem- 
ed, on a truckle-bed in the room, without the least attempt 
to interfere in the conversation which ensued. 

“Nay, but speak to me, Clement,” said the peni- 
tent Lieutenant, “ if it be but to swear at me for my stu- 
pidity ! 

What ! not an oath ? — Nay, then the world goes hard, 

If Clifford cannot spare his friends an oath.” 

“ I prithee peace, and be gone !” said Cleveland ; 
“ I have one bosom friend left yet, and you will make 
me bestow its contents on you, or on myself.” 

“ I have it !” said Bunce, “ I have it !” and on he 
went in the vein of Jaffier — 

Then, by the hell I merit. I’ll not leave thee, 

Till to thyself at least thou’rt reconciled, 

However thy resentment deal with me !” 

“ I pray you once more to be silent,” said Cleveland 
— “ Is it not enough that you have undone me with your 
treachery, but you must stun me with your silly buffoon- 
ery ? — 1 would not have believed you would have lifted 
a finger against me. Jack, of any man or devil in yonder 
unhappy ship.” 

“ Who, I ?” exclaimed Bunce, “ I lift a finger against 
you ! — And if I did, it was in pure love, and to make 
you the happiest fellow that ever trod a deck, with your 
mistress beside you, and fifty fine fellows at your com- 
mand. Here is Dick Fletcher can bear witness I did 
all for the best, if he would but speak, instead of lollop- 
ing there like a Dutch dogger laid up to be careened. — 
Get up, Dick, and speak for me, won’t you ?” 

“ Why, yes. Jack Bunce,” answered Fletcher, raising 
himself with difficulty, and speaking feebly, “ I will if I 
can — and I always knew you spoke and did for the best 
— but howsomdever, d’ye see, it has turned out for the 
worst for me this time, for I am bleeding to death, I 
think.” 


248 


THE PIRATE. 


“ You cannot be such an ass !” said Jack Bunce 
springing to his assistance, as did Cleveland. But hu 
man aid came too late — he sunk back on the bed, and, 
turning on his face, expired without a groan. 

“ I always thought him a d — d fool,” said Bunce, as 
he wiped a tear from his eye, “ but never such a con- 
summate idiot as to hop the perch so sillily. I have lost 
the best follower — ” and he again wiped his eye. 

Cleveland looked on the dead body, the rugged fea- 
tures of which had remained unaltered by the death- 
pang — “ A bull-dog,” he said, “ of the true British 
breed, and, with a better counsellor, would have been a 
better man.” 

“ You may say that of some other folks too. Captain, 
if you are minded to do them justice,” said Bunce. 

I may indeed, and especially of yourself,” said 
Cleveland, in reply. 

“ Why then, say. Jack, I forgive you,^^ said Bunce , 
“ it’s but a short word, and soon spoken.” 

“ I forgive you from all my soul. Jack,” said Cleve- 
land, who had resumed hiS situation at the window ; 

and the rather that your folly is of little consequence — 
the morning is come that must bring ruin on us all.” 

“ What ! you are thinking of the old woman’s prophecy 
you spoke of?” said Bunce. 

“ It will soon be accomplished,” answered Cleveland. 
“ Come hither ; what do you take yon large square-rig- 
ged vessel for, that you see doubling the head-land on 
the east, and opening the Bay of Stromness ? 

“ Why, I can’t make her well out,” said Bunce, “ but 
yonder is old Goffe takes her for a West Indiaman load- 
ed with rum and sugar, I suppose, for d — n me if he 
does not slip cable, and stand out to her !” 

“ Instead of running into the shoal-water, which was his 
only safety,” said Cleveland — “ The fool ! the dotard ^ 
the drivelling, drunken idiot ! — he will get his flip hot 
enough ; for yon is the Halcyon — See, she hoists her 
colours and fires a broadside ! and there will soon be an 
end of the Fortune’s Favourite ! I only hope they wifl 


THE PIRATE. 


249 


fight her to the last plank. The hoatsvyain used to be 
stanch enough, and so is GofFe, though an incarnate de- 
mon. — Now she shoots away, with all the sail she can 
spread, and that shows some sense.’’ 

“ Up goes the Jolly Hodge, the old black flag, with 
the death’s head and hour-glass, and that shows some 
spunk.” 

“ The hour-glass is turned for us. Jack, for this bout 
— our sand is running fast. — Fire away yet, my roving 
lads ! The deep sea or the blue sky, rather than a rope 
and a yard-arm!” 

There was a moment of anxious and dead silence ; 
the sloop, though hard pressed, maintaining still a run- 
ning fight, and the frigate continuing in full chase, but 
scarce returning a shot. At length the vessels neared 
each other, so as to show that the man-of-war intended 
to board the sloop, instead of sinking her, probably to se- 
cure the plunder which might be in the pirate vessel. 
“ Now, Golfe — now. Boatswain !” exclaimed Cleveland, 
in an ecstasy of impatience, and as if they could have 
heard his commands, “ stand by sheets and tacks — rake 
her with a broadside, when you are under her bows, then 
about ship, and go off on the other tack like a wild-goose. 
The sails shiver — the helm’s a-lee — Ah ! — deep-sea sink 
the lubbers ! — they miss stays, and the frigate runs them 
a-board !” 

Accordingly the various manoeuvres of the chase had 
brought them so near, that Cleveland with his spy-glass, 
could see the man-of-war’s-men boarding by the yards 
and bowsprit, in irresistible numbers, their naked cut- 
lasses flashing in the sun, when, at that critical moment, 
both ships were enveloped in a cloud of thick black 
smoke, which suddenly arose on board the captured 
pirate. 

“ Exeunt omnes !” said Bunce, with clasped hands. 

‘‘ There went the Fortune’s Favourite, ship and crew!” 
said Cleveland, at the same instant. But the smoke im- 
mediately clearing away, showed that the damage had 
only been partial, and that, from want of a sufficient qiian- 


250 


THE PIRATE. 


tity of powder, the pirates had failed in their desperate 
attempt to blow up their vessel with the Halcyon. 

Shortly after the action was over, Captain Weather- 
port of the Halcyon sent an officer and a party of marines 
to the House of Stennis, to demand from the little garrison 
the pirate seamen who were their prisoners, and, in par- 
ticular, Cleveland and Bunce, who acted as Captain and 
Lieutenant of the gang. 

This was a demand which was not to be resisted, though 
Magnus Troil could have wished sincerely that the roof 
under which he lived had been allowed as an asylum at 
least to Cleveland. But the officer’s orders were per- 
emptory ; and he added, it was Captain Weatherport’s 
intention to land the other prisoners, and send the whole, 
with a sufficient escort, across the island to Kirkwall, in 
order to undergo an examination there before the civil 
authorities, previous to their being sent off to London for 
trial at the High Court of Admiralty. Magnus could 
therefore only intercede for good usage to Cleveland, 
and that he might not be stripped or plundered, which 
the officer, struck by his good mien, and compassionating 
his situation, readily promised. The honest Udaller 
would have said something in the way of comfort to 
Cleveland himself, but he could not find words to express 
it, and only shook his head. . 

“ Old friend,” said Cleveland, “ you may have much 
to complain of — yet you pity instead of exulting over me 
— for the sake of you and yours, I will never harm hu- 
man being more. Take this from me — my last hope, 
but my last temptation jilso” — he drew from his bosom a 
pocket-pistol, and gave it to Magnus Troil. “ Remem- 
ber me to — but no — let every one forget me. — I am youi 
prisoner, sir,” said he to the officer. 

“ And I also,” said poor Bunce ; and putting on a 
theatrical countenance, he ranted, with no very percepti- 
ble faltering in his tone, the words of Pierre : — 

“ Captain, you should be a gentleman of honour ; 

Keep off the rabble, that I may have room 

To entertain my fate, and die with decency.” 


THE PIRATE. 


251 


CHAPTER XXL 

Joy, joy, in London now ' 

Southey. 

The news of the capture of the rover reached Kirkwall, 
about an hour before noon, and filled all men with wonder 
andwithjoy. Little business was that day done at the Fair, 
whilst people of all ages and occupations streamed from the 
place to see the prisoners as they were marched towards 
Kirkwall, and to triumph in the different appearance which 
they now bore, from that which they had formerly exhib- 
ited when ranting, swaggering, and bullying in the streets 
of that town. The bayonets of the marines were soon 
seen to glisten in the sun, and then came on the mel- 
ancholy troop of captives, handcuffed two and two to- 
gether. Their finery had been partly torn from them 
by their captors, partly hung in rags about them ; many 
were wounded and covered with blood, many blackened 
and scorched with the explosion, by which a few of the 
most desperate had in vain striven to blow up the vessel. 
Most of them seemed sullen and impenitent, some were 
more becomingly affected with their condition, and a few 
braved it out, and sung the same ribald songs to which 
they had made the streets of Kirkwall ring when they 
were in their frolics. 

The Boatswain and Goffe, coupled together, exhaust- 
ed themselves in threats and imprecations against each 
other ; the former charging Goffe with want of seaman- 
ship, and the latter alleging that the Boatswain had pre- 
vented him from firing the powder that was stowed 
forward, and so sending them all to the other world 
together. Last came Cleveland and Bunce, w^ho were 
permitted to walk unshackled ; the decent melancholy, 
yet resolved manner of the former, contrasting strongly 
with the stage strut and swagger which poor Jack thought 
23 


252 


THE riRATE. 


it fitting to assume, in order to conceal bJme less digni- 
fied emotions. The former was looked upon with com- 
passion, the latter with a mixture of scorn and pity , 
while most of the others inspired horror^ and even fear, 
by their looks and their language. 

There was one individual in Kirkwall, who was so far 
from hastening to see the sight which attracted all eyes, 
that he was not even aw’are of the event which agitated 
the town. This was the elder Mertoun, whose residence 
Kirkwall had been for two or three days, part of which 
had been spent iti attending to some judicial proceedings, 
undertaken at the instance of the Procurator Fiscal, 
against that grave professor, Bryce Snailsfoot. In con- 
sequence of an inquisition into the proceedings of this 
worthy trader, Cleveland’s chest, with his papers and 
other matters therein contained, bad been restored to 
Mertoun, as the lawful custodier thereof, until the right 
owner should be in a situation to establish his right to 
them. Mertoun was at first desirous to throw back upon 
Justice the charge which she was disposed to entrust him 
with ; but, on perusing one or two of the papers, he has- 
tily changed his mind — in broken words, requested the 
magistrate to let the chest be sent to his lodgings, and, 
hastening homeward, bolted himself into the room, to 
consider and digest the singular information which chance 
had thus conveyed to him, and which increased in a ten- 
fold degree, his impatience for an interview with the mys- 
terious Norna of the Fitful-head. 

It may be remembered that she had required of him, 
when they met in the Churchyard of Saint Ninian, to 
attend in the outer aisle of the Cathedral of Saint Mag- 
nus, at the hour of noon, on the fifth day ol the Fair of 
Saint 011a, there to meet a person by whom the fate of 
Mordaunt would be explained to him.— ‘‘ It must be 
herself,” he said ; “ and that I should see her at this 
moment is indispensable. How to find her sooner, I 
know not ; and better lose a few hours even in this exi- 
gence, than offend her by a premature attempt to force 
myself on her presence.” 


THE PIRATE. 


253 


Long, therefore, before noon — long before the town ol 
Kirkwall was agitated by the news of the events on the 
other side of the island, the elder Mertoun was pacing 
the deserted aisle of the Cathedral, awaiting with ago- 
nizing eagerness, the expected communication from 
Norna. The bell tolled twelve — no door opened — no 
one was seen to enter the Cathedral ; but the last sounds 
had not ceased to reverberate through the vaulted roof 
when, gliding from one of the interior side-aisles, Norna 
tood before him. Mertoun, indifferent to the apparent 
mystery of her sudden approach, (with the secret of which 
the reader is acquainted,) went up to her at once, with 
the earnest ejaculation — “ Ulla — Ulla Troil — aid me to 
save our unhappy boy !” 

“ To Ulla Troil,” said Norna, “ I answer not — I gave 
that name to the winds, on the night that cost me a 
father !” 

“ Speak not of that night of horror,” said Mertoun ; 
“ we have need of our reason — let us not think on re- 
collections which may destroy it ; but aid me, if thou 
canst, to save our unfortunate child !” 

“ Vaughan,” answered Norna, “ he is already saved 
— long since saved ; think you a mother’s hand — and 
that of such a mother as I am — ^would await your crawling, 
tardy, ineffectual assistance ? No, Vaughan — I make my- 
self known to you, but tc^show ray triumph over you — 
It is the only revenge which the powerful Norna permits 
herself to take for the wrongs of Ulla Troil.” 

“ Have you indeed saved him — saved him from the mur- 
derous crew?” said Mertoun, or Vaughan — “speak! — and 
speak truth ! — I will believe everything — all you would re- 
quire me to assent to!— prove to me only he is escaped 
and safe ! 

“ Escaped and safe, by my means,” said Norna — 
“ safe, and in assurance of an honoured and happy alli- 
ance. Yes, great unbeliever! — yes, wise and self-opin- 
ioned infidel ! — these were the works of Norna ! I knew 
you many a year since ; but never had 1 made myself 
known to you, save with the triumphant consciousness of 

VOL. II. 


254 


THE PIRATE. 


having controlled the destiny that threatened my son 
All combined against him — planets which threatened 
drowning — combinations which menaced blood — but my 
skill was superior to all. — I arranged — I combined — I 
found means — I made them — each disaster has been 
averted ; — and what infidel on earth, or stubborn demon 
beyond the bounds of earth, shall hereafter deny my 
power ?” 

The wild ecstasy with which she spoke, so much re- 
sembled triumphant insanity, that Mertoun answered — 
“ Were your pretensions less lofty, and your speech more 
plain, I should be better assured of my son’s safety.” 

“ Doubt on, vain sceptic !” said Norna — “ And yet 
know, that not only is our son safe, but vengeance is mine, 
though I sought it not — vengeance on the powerful im- 
plement of the darker Influences, by whom my schemes 
were so often thwarted, and even the life of my son en- 
dangered. — ^Yes, take it as a guarantee of the truth of 
my speech, that Cleveland — the pirate Cleveland — 
even now enters Kirkwall as a prisoner, and will soon 
expiate with his life the having shed blood which is of 
kin to Noma’s.” 

“ Who didst thou say was prisoner r” exclaimed Mer- 
toun, with a voice of thunder — “ Who, woman, didst thou 
say should expiate his crimes with his life ?” 

“ Cleveland — the pirate Cleveland !” answered Nor- 
na ; “ and by me, whose counsel he scorned, he has been 
permitted to meet his fate.” 

“ Thou most wretched of women !” said Mertoun, 
speaking from between his clenched teeth, — “ thou hast 
slain thy son, as well as thy father !” 

‘‘ My son ! — what son } — what mean you ? — Mordaun 
is your son — your only son !” exclaimed Norna — “ is he 
not } — tell me quickly — is he not ?” 

“ Mordaunt is indeed my son,” said Mertoun — “ the 
laws, at least, gave him to me as such — but, O unhappy 
Ulla ! Cleveland is your son as well as mine — blood of 
our blood, bone of our bone ; and if you have given him 
tn death, I will end my wretched life along with him 


THE PIRATE. 


255 


Stay — hold — stop, Vaughan !” said Noma; “lam 
not yet overcome — prove but to me the truth of what you 
say, I would find help, if I should evoke hell ! — But 
prove your words, else believe them I cannot.” 

“ Thou help ! wretched, overweening woman — in 
what have thy combinations and thy stratagems — the leg- 
erdemain of lunacy — the mere quackery of insanity — in 
what have these involved thee ? — and yet I will speak to 
thee as reasonable — nay, I will admit thee as powerful — 
Hear then, Ulla, the proofs which you demand, and find 
a remedy, if thou canst : — 

“ When I fled from Orkney,” he continued, after a 
pause — “ it is now five-and-twenty years since — I bore 
with me the unhappy offspring to whom you had given 
light. It was sent to me by one of your kinswomen, with 
an account of your illness, which was soon followed by a 
generally received belief of your death. It avails not to 
tell in what misery I left Europe. I found refuge in 
Hispaniola, wherein a fair young Spaniard undertook the 
task of comforter. I married her — she became mother 
of the youth called Mordaunt Mertoun.” 

“ You married her !” said Norna, in a tone of deep 
reproach. 

“ I did, Ulla,” answered Mertoun ; “ but you were 
avenged. She proved faithless, and her infidelity left me 
in doubts whether the child she bore had a right lo call 
me father — But I also was avenged.” 

“ You murdered her !” said Norna, with a dreadful 
shriek. 

“ I did that,” said Mertoun, without a more direct re- 
ply, “ which made an instant flight from Hispaniola 
necessary. Your son I carried with me to Tortuga, 
where we had a small settlement. Mordaunt Vaughan, 
my son by marriage, about three or four years younger, 
was residing in Port-Royal, for the advantages of an 
English education. I resolved never to see him again, 
but I continued to support him. Our settlement was 
plundered by the Spaniards, when Clement was but fif- 

— Want came to aid despair and a troubled conscience 


256 


THE PIRATE. 


I became a corsair, and involved Clement in the same 
desperate trade. His skill and bravery, though then a 
mere boy, gained him a separate command ; and after a 
lapse of two or three years, while we were on different 
cruises, my crew rose on me, and left me for dead on the 
beach of one of the Bermudas. I recovered, however, 
and my first inquiries, after a tedious illness, were after 
Clement. He, 1 heard, had been also marooned by a 
rebellious crew, and put ashore on a desert islet, to perish 
with want — I believed he had so perished.” 

‘‘ And what assures you that he did not ?” said Ulla ; 
‘‘ or how comes this Cleveland to be identified with 
Vaughan ?” 

“ To change a name is common with such adventur- 
ers,” answered Mertoun, and Clement had apparently 
found that of Vaughan had become too notorious — and 
this change, in his case, prevented me from hearing any 
tidings of him. It was then that remorse seized me, and 
that, detesting all nature, but especially the sex to which 
Louisa belonged, I resolved to do penance in the wild 
islands of Zetland for the rest of my life. To subject 
myself to fasts and to the scourge, was the advice of the 
holy Catholic priests, whom I consulted. But I devised 
a nobler penance — I determined to bring with me the un- 
happy boy Mordaunt, and to keep always before me the 
living memorial of my misery and my guilt. I have done 
so, and I have thougl^ over both, till reason has often 
trembled on her throne. And now, to drive me to utter 
madness, my Clement — my own, my undoubted son — 
revives from the dead to be consigned to an infamous 
death, by the machinations of his own mother !” 

“ Away, away 1” said Norna, with a laugh, when she 
had heard the story to an end, “ this is a legend framed 
by the old corsair, to interest my aid in favour of a guilty 
comrade. How could I mistake Mordaunt for my son, 
their ages being so different ?” 

‘‘ The dark complexion and manly stature may have 
done much,” said Basil Mertoun ; strong imagination 
must have done the rest.” 


THE PIRATE. 


257 


“ But, give me proofs — give me proofs that this Cleve- 
land is my son, and believe me, this sun shall sooner sink 
m the east, than they shall have power to haT-m a hair of 
his head.” 

“ These papers, these journals,” said Mertoun, offering 
the ]'ocket-book. 

“ I cannot read them,” she said, after an effort, “ my 
brain is dizzy.” 

“ Clement had also tokens which you may remember, 
but they must have become the booty of his captors. He 
had a silver box with a Runic inscription, with which in 
far other days you presented me — a golden chaplet.” 

“ A box !” said Norna, hastily ; “ Cleveland gave me 
one but a day since — I have never looked at it till now.” 

Eagerly she pulled it out — eagerly examined the le- 
gend around the lid, and as eagerly exclaimed — “ They 
may now indeed call me Reimkennar, for by this rhyme 
I know myself murderess of my son, as well as of my 
father !” 

The conviction of the strong delusion under which she 
had laboured, was so overwhelming, that she sunk down 
at the foot of one of the pillars — Mertoun shouted for 
help, though in despair of receiving any ; the sexton, 
however, entered, and, hopeless of all assistance from 
Norna, the distracted father rushed out, to learn, if pos- 
sible, the fate of his son. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

Go, some of you, cry a reprieve ! 

Beggars^ Opera. 

Captain Weatherport had, before this time, reach- 
ed Kirkwall in person, and was received with great joy 
and thankfulness by the magistrates, who had assembled 
VOL. II. 


258 


THE PIRATE. 


ill council for the purpose. The provost, in particular, 
expressed hii iself delighted with the providential arrival 
of the Halcyon, at the very conjuncture when the Pirate 
could not escape her. The Captain looked a little sur- 
prised, and said^ — “ For that, sir, you may thank the in- 
formation you yourself supplied.” 

‘‘ That I supplied ?” said the provost, somewhat aston- 
ished. 

“ Yes, sir,” answered Captain Weatherport, ‘‘ I un- 
derstand you to be George Torfe, Chief Magistrate of 
Kirkwall, who subscribes this letter.” 

The astonished provost took the letter addressed to 
Captain Weatherport of the Halcyon, stating the arrival, 
force, &LC. of the pirates’ vessel ; but adding, that they 
had heard of the Halcyon being on the coast, and that 
they were on their guard and ready to baffle her, by going 
among the shoals, and through the islands, and holms, 
where the frigate could not easily follow ; and at the 
worst, they were desperate enough to propose running the 
sloop ashore and blowing her up, by which much booty 
and treasure would be lost to the captors. The letter, 
therefore, suggested, that the Halcyon should cruise be- 
twixt Duncansbay Head and Cape Wrath, for two or 
three days, to relieve the pirates of the alarm her neigh- 
bourhood occasioned, and lull them into security, the 
more especially as the letter-writer knew it to be their 
intention, if the frigate left the coast, to go into Strom- 
ness Bay, and there put their guns ashore for some neces- 
sary repairs, or even for careening their vessel, if they 
could find means. The letter concluded by assuring 
Captain Weatherport, that, if he could brin^ his frigate 
into Stromness Bay on the morning of the 24th of Au- 
gust, he would have a good bargain of the pirates — if 
sooner, he was not unli-kely to miss them. 

“ This letter is not of my writing or subscribing, Cap- 
ain Weatherport,” said the provost ; “ nor would I have 
ventured to advise any delay in your coming hither.” 

The Captain was surprised in his turn.' “ All 1 know 
is, that it reached me when I was in ^he bay of Thurso. 


THE PIRATE. 


259 


and that I gave the boat’s crew that brought it five dollars 
for crossing|the Pentland Frith in very rough weather. 
They had a dumb dwarf as coxswain, the ugliest urchin 
my eyes ever opened upon. I give you much credit for 
the accuracy of your intelligence, Mr. Provost.” 

‘‘ It is lucky as it is,” said the provost ; “ yet I ques- 
tion whether the writer of this letter would not rather that 
•you had found the nest cold and the bird flown.” 

So saying, he handed the letter to Magnus Troil, who 
returned it with a smile, but without any observation, 
aware, doubtless, with the sagacious reader, that Norna 
had her own reasons for calculating with accuracy on the 
date of the Halcyon’s arrrival. 

Without puzzling himself farther concerning a circum- 
stance which seemed inexplicable, the Captain requested 
that the examinations might proceed ; and Cleveland 
and Altamont, as he chose to be called, were brought up 
the first of the pirate crew, on the charge of having acted 
as Captain and Lieutenant. They had commenced 
the examination, when, after some expos^jj^tion with the 
officers who kept the door, Basil Mertoun burst into the 
apartment and exclaimed, “ Take the old victim for the 
young one ! — I am Basil Vaughan, too well known on the 
windw'ard station — take my life, and spare my son’s !” 

All were astonished, and none more than Magnus 
Troil, who hastily explained to the magistrates and Cap- 
tain Weatherport, that this gentleman had been living 
peaceably and honestly on the mainland of Zetland foi 
many years. 

“ In that case,” said the Captain, I wash my hands 
of the poor man, for he is safe, under two proclamations 
of mercy ; and, by my soul, when I see them, the father 
and his offspring, hanging on each others neck, I wish I 
could say as much for the son.” 

“ But how is it — how can it be said the provost ; ‘‘ we 
always called the old man Mertoun, and the young, Cleve- 
land, and now it seems they are both named Vaughan.” 

“ Vaughan,” answered Magnus, “is a name which I 
have sonre reason to remember ; and, from what I have 


260 


THE PIKATE. 


lately heard from my cousin Norna, that old man has d 
right to bear it.” # 

“ And, I trust, the young man also,” said the Captain, 
who had been looking over a memorandum. “ Listen 
to me a moment,” added he, addressing the younger 
Vaughan, whom we have, hitherto called Cleveland. 
“ Hark you, sir, your name is said to be Clement Vaughan 
— are you the same, who, then a mere boy, commanded a 
party of rovers, who, about eight or nine years ago, pillag- 
ed a Spanish village called Quempoa, on the Spanish 
Main, with the purpose of seizing some treasure ?” 

“ It will avail me nothing to deny it,” answered the 
prisoner. 

“ No,” said Captain Weatherport, “ but it may do you 
service to admit it. — Well, the muleteers escaped with 
the treasure, while you w^ere engaged in protecting, at the 
hazard of your own life, the honour of two Spanish ladies 
against the brutality of your followers. Do you remem- 
ber anything^jcnf this ?” 

I am surO do,” said Jack Bunce ; “ for our Cap- 
tain here was marooned for his gallantry, and I narrowly 
escaped flogging and pickling for having taken his part.” 

“ When these points are established,” said Captain 
Weatherport, “ Vaughan’s life is safe — the women he 
saved were persons of quality, daughters to the governor 
of the province, and application was long since made, by 
the grateful Spaniard, to our government, for favour to be 
shown to their preserver. I had special orders about 
Clement Vaughan, when I had a commission for cruising 
upon the pirates, in the West Indies, six or seven years 
since. But Vaughan was gone then as a name amongst 
them ; and I heard enough of Cleveland in his room. 
However, Captain, be you Cleveland or Vaughan, I think 
that, as the Quempoa hero, I can assure you a free par- 
don when you arrive in London.” 

Cleveland bowed, and the blood mounted to his face. 
Mertoun fell oi his knees, and exhausted himself in 
thanksgiving to Heaven. They were removed, amidst 
the sympathizing sobs of the spectators. 


THE PIBATE. 


26J 


And now, good Master Lieutenant, what have you 
got to say for yourself?” said Captain Weatherport to the 
ci-devant Roscius. 

“ Why, little or nothing, please your honour ; only that 
I wish your honour could find my name in that book of 
mercy you have in your band ; for I stood by Captain 
Clement Vaughan in that Quernpoa business.” 

“ You call yourself Frederick Altamont ?” said Cap- 
tain Weatherport. “I can see no such name here ; one 
John Bounce, or Bunco, the lady put on her tablets.” 

“ Why, that is me — that is I myself, Captain — I can 
prove it ; and I am determined, though the sound be 
something plebeian, rather to live Jack Bunco, than to 
hang as Frederick Altamont.” 

“ In that case,” said the Captain, “ I can give you 
some hopes as John Bunco.” 

“ Thank your noble worship!” shouted Bunco ; then 
changing his tone, he said, “ Ah, since an alias has such 
virtue, poor Dick I'letcher might have come off as Tim- 
othy Tugmutton , but, howsomdever, d’ye see, to use his 
own phrase ” 

“ Away wath the Lieutenant,” said the Captain, “ and 
bring forward Goffe and the other fellows ; there will be 
ropes reeved for some of them, I think.” And this pre- 
diction promised to be amply fulfilled, so strong was the 
proof which was brought against them. 

The Halcyon was accordingly ordered round to carry 
the whole prisoners to London, for which she set sail in 
the course of two days. 

During the time that the unfortunate Cleveland remain- 
ed at Kirkwall, he was treated with civility by the Captain 
of the Halcyon ; and the kindness of his old acquaint- 
ance, Magnus Troil, who knew in secret how closely he 
was allied to his blood, pressed on him accommodations oi 
every kind, more than be could be prevailed on to accept. 

Norna, whose interest in the unhappy prisoner was 
still more deep, was at this time unable to express it. 
The sexton had found her lying on the pavement in a 
sw’ODii, and when she recovered, her mind for the time 


THE PIRATE. 


262 


had totally lost its equipoise, and it became necessary to 
place her under the restraint of watchful attendants. 

Of the sisters of Burgh-Westra, Cleveland only heard 
that they remained ill, in consequence of the fright to 
which they had been subjected, until the evening before 
the Halcyon sailed, when he received, by a private con- 
veyance, the following billet : — “ Farewell, Cleveland — 
we part for ever, and it is right that we should — Be vir- 
tuous and be happy. The delusions which a solitary ed- 
ucation and limited acquaintance with the modern world 
had spread around me, are gone and dissipated for ever. 
But in you, I am sure, I have been thus far free from 
error — that you are one to whom good is naturally more 
attractive than evil, and whom only necessity, example, 
and habit, have forced into your late course of life. Think 
of me as one who no longer exists, unless you should be- 
come as much the object of general praise, as now of 
general reproach ; and then think of me as one who will 
rejoice in your reviving fame, though she must never see 
you more 1” — The note was signed M. T. ; and Cleve- 
land, with a deep emotion which he testified even by 
tears, read it an hundred times over, and then -clasped it 
to his bosom. 

Mordaunt Mertoun heard by letter from his father, but 
in a very different style. Basil bade him farewell for ever, 
and acquitted him henceforward of the duties of a son, 
as one on whom he, notwithstanding the exertions of many 
years, had found himself unable to bestow the affections 
of a parent. The letter informed him of a recess in the 
old house of Jarlshof, in which the writer had deposited a 
considerable quantity of specie and of treasure, which he 
desired Mordaunt to use as his own. “ You need not 
fear,” the letter bore, “ either that you lay yourself under 
obligation to me, or that you are sharing the spoils of pira- 
cy. What is now given over to you, is almost entirely the 
property of your deceased mother, Louisa Gonzago, and 
is yours by every right. Let us forgive each other,” was 
the conclusion, “ as they who must meet no more.” — And 
they never met more ; for the elder Mertoun, against 


THli PIRATE. 


263 


whom no charge was ever preferred, disappeared after the 
fate of Cleveland was determined, and was generally be- 
lieved to have retired into a foreign convent. 

The fate of Cleveland will be most briefly expressed 
in a letter which Minna received within two months after 
the Halcyon left Kirkwall. The family were then assem- 
bled at Burgh-Westra, and Mordaunt was a member of 
it for the time, the good Udaller thinking he could never 
sufficiently repay the activity which he had shown in the 
defence of his daughters. Norna, then beginning to re- 
cover from her temporary alienation of mind, was a guest 
in the family, and Minna, who was sedulous in her atten- 
tion upon this unfortunate victim of mental delusion, was 
seated with her, watching each symptom of returning 
reason, when the letter we allude to was placed in her 
hands. 

“Minna,” it said — “ dearest Minna ! — farewell, and for 
ever. Believe me, 1 never meant you wrong — never. 
From the moment 1 came to know you, I resolved to detach 
myself from my hateful comrades, and had framed a thou- 
sand schemes, which have proved as vain as they deserv- 
ed to be— for why, or how, should the fate of her that is^ 
so lovely, pure, and innocent, be involved with that of one 
so guilty ? — Of these dreams I will speak no more. The 
stern reality of my situation is much milder than I either 
expected or deserved ; and the little good I did has out- 
weighed, in the minds of honourable and merciful judges, 
much that was evil and criminal. I have not only been 
exempted from the ignominious death to which several of 
my compeers are sentenced ; but Captain Weatherport, 
about once more to sail for the Spanish Main, under the 
apprehension of an immediate war with that country, has 
generously solicited and obtained permission to employ 
me, and two or three more of my less guilty associates, 
in the same service — a measure recommended to himseli 
by his own generous compassion, and to others by our 
knowledge of the coast, and of local circumstances, which, 
by whatever means acquired, we now hope to use for 
the service of our country. Minna, you will hear mv 


264 


THE PIRATE. 


name pronounced with honour, or you will never near it 
ag;ain. If virtue can give happiness, I need not wish h 
to you, for it is yours already. — Farewell, Minna.” 

Minna wept so bitterly over this letter, that it attracted 
the attention of the convalescent Norna. She snatched 
it from the hand of her kinswoman, and read it over at 
first with the confused air of one to whom it conveyed no 
intelligence — then with a dawn of recollection — then with 
a burst of mingled joy and grief, in which she dropped it 
from her hand. Minna snatched it up, and retired with 
her treasure to her own apartment. 

From that time Norna appeared to assume a different 
character. Her dress was changed to one of a more 
simple and less imposing appearance. Her dwarf was dis- 
missed, with ample provision for his future comfort. She 
showed no desire of resuming her erratick life ; and di- 
rected her observatory, as it might be called, on Fitful- 
bead to be dismantled. She refused the name of Norna, 
and would only be addressed by her real appellation of 
Ulla Troil. But the most important change remained 
behind. Formerly, from the dreadful dictates of spirit- 
ual despair, arising out of the circumstances of her father’s 
death, she seemed to have considered herself as an out- 
cast from divine grace ; besides, that, enveloped in the 
vain occult sciences which she pretended to practise, her 
study, like that of Chaucer’s physician, had been “ but 
little in the Bible.” Now, the sacred volume was seldom 
laid aside ; and, to the poor ignorant people who came as 
formerly to invoke her power over the elements, she only 
replied — “ The winds are in the hollow of His hand ^ — 
Her conversion was not, perhaps, altogether rational ^ for 
this, the state of a mind disordered by such a complica- 
tion of horrid incidents, probably prevented. But it 
seemed to be sincere, and was certainly useful. She ap- 
peared deeply to repent of her former presumptuous at- 
tempts to interfere with the course of human events 
superintended as they are by far higher powers, and ex- 
pressed bitter compunction when such her former pre- 
tensions were in any manner recalled to her memory 


THE PIRATE. 


26 ;) 


She still showed a partiality to Mordaunt, though, perhaps, 
arising chiefly from habit ; nor was it easy to know how 
much or how little she remembered of the complicated 
event? in which she had been connected. When she died, 
which was about four years after the events we have com- 
memorated, it was found that, at the special and earnest 
request of Minna Troil, she had conveyed her very con- 
siderable property to Brenda. A clause in her will spe- 
cially directed, that all the books, implements of her 
laboratory, and other things connected with her former 
studies, should be committed to the flames. 

About two years before Norna’s death, Brenda was 
wedded to Mordaunt Mertoun. It was some time before 
old Magnus Troil, with all his affection for his daugliter, 
and all his partiality for Mordaunt, was able frankly to 
reconcile himself to this match. But Mordaunt’s accom- 
plishments were peculiarly to the Udaller’s taste, and the 
old man felt the impossibility of supplying his place in his 
family so absolutely, that at length his Norse blood gave 
way to the natural feeling of the heart, and he comforted 
his pride while he looked around him, and saw what he 
considered as the encroachments of the Scottish gentry 
upon THE COUNTRY, (so Zetland is fondly termed by its 
inhabitants,) that as well “ his daughter married the son 
of an English pirate, as of a Scottish thief,” in scornful 
allusion to the Highland and Border families, to whom 
Zetland owes many respectable landholders ; but whose 
ancestors were generally esteemed more renowned for 
ancient family and high courage, than for accurately re- 
garding the trifling distinctions of meum and tuum. The 
jovial old man lived to the extremity of human life, with 
the happy prospect of a numerous succession in the family 
of his younger daughter ; and having his board cheered 
alternately by the minstrelsy of Claud Halcro, and en- 
lightened by the lucubrations of Mr. Triptolemus Yellow- 
ley, who, laying aside his high pretensions, was, when he 
became better acquainted with the manners of the island- 
ers, and remembered the various misadventures which had 

VOL. II. 


266 


THE PIRATE. 


attended his premature attempts at reformation, an honest 
and useful representative of his principal, and never so 
happy as when he could escape from the spare commons 
of his sister Barbara, to the genial table of the Udaller. 
Barbara’s temper also was much softened by the unex- 
pected restoration of the horn of silver coins, (the proper- 
ty of Norna,) which she had concealed in the mansion 
of old Stourburgh, for achieving some of her mysterious 
plans, but which she now restored to those by whom it had 
been accidentally discovered, with an intimation, however, 
that it would again disappear unless a reasonable portion 
was expended on the sustenance of the family ; a pre- 
caution to which Tronda Dronsdaughter (probably an 
agent of Norna’s,) owed her escape from a slow and 
wasting death by inanition. 

Mordaunt and Brenda were as happy as our mortal 
condition permits us to be. They admired and loved each 
other — enjoyed easy circumstances — had duties to dis- 
charge which they did not neglect ; and, clear in con- 
science as light of heart, laughed, sung, danced, dafFed 
the world aside, and bid it pass. 

But Minna — the high-minded and imaginative Minna — 
she, gifted with such depth of feeling and enthusiasm, yet 
doomed to see both blighted in early youth, because, with 
the inexperience of a disposition equally romantic and igno- 
rant, she had built the fabric of her happiness on a quicksand 
instead of a rock, — was she, could she be, happy ? Rea- 
der, she was happy ; for, whatever may be alleged to the 
contrary by the sceptic and the scorner, to each duty per- 
formed there is assigned a degree of mental peace and 
high consciousness of honourable exertion, corresponding 
to the difficulty of the task accomplished. That rest of 
the body which succeeds to hard and industrious toil, is 
not to be compared to the repose which the spirit enjoys 
under similar circumstances. Her resignation, however, 
and the constant attention which she paid to her father, 
ner sister, the afflicted Norna, and to all who had claims 
on her, were neither Minna’s sole nor her most precious 
source of comfort. Like Norna, but under a more reg- 


THE PIRATE. 


267 


ulated judgment, she learned to excnange the visions 
of wild enthusiasm, which had exerted and misled her 
imagination, for a truer and purer connexion with the 
world beyond us, than could be learned from the sagas oi 
heathen bards, or the visions of later rhymers. To this 
she owed the support by which she was enabled, after 
various accounts of the honourable and gallant conduct 
of Cleveland, to read with resignation, and even with a 
sense of comfort, mingled with sorrow, that he had at 
length fallen, leading the way in a gallant and honourable 
enterprize, which was successfully accomplished by those 
companions, to whom his determined bravery had opened 
the road. Bunce, his fantastic follower in good, as for- 
merly in evil, transmitted an account to Minna of this 
melancholy event, in terms which showed, that, though 
his head was weak, his heart had not been utterly corrupt- 
ed by the lawless life which he had for some time led, or at 
least that it had been amended by the change ; and that 
he himself had gained credit and promotion in the same 
action, seemed to be of little consequence to him, com- 
pared with the loss of his old captain and cpmrade.* 
Minna read the intelligence, and thanked heaven, even 
while the eyes which she lifted up were streaming with 
tears, that the death of Cleveland had been in the bed of 
honour ; nay, she even had the courage to add her grat- 
itude, that he had been snatched from a situation of temp- 
tation ere circumstances had overcome his new-born vir- 
tue ; and so strongly did this reflection operate, that her 
life, after the immediate pain of this event had passed 
away, seemed not only as resigned, but even more cheer- 
ful than before. Her thoughts, however, were detached 
from the world, and only visited it with an interest like 
that which guardian spirits take for their charge, in behalf 


# We have been able to learn nothing with certainty of Bunce's fate ; but 
Dur friend, Dr. Dryasdust, believes he may be identified with an old gentleman, 
who, ill the beginning of the reign of George I. attended the Rose Coflee-house 
regularly, went to the theatre every night, told mercilessly long stories about 
the Spanish Main, controlled reckonings, bullied waiters, and was generally 
known bv the name of Captain Bounce. 


THE PIRATE. 


iG8 

of those friends with whom she lived in love^orofthe 
poor whom she could serve and comfort. Thus passed 
her life, enjoying, from all who approached her, an af- 
fection enhanced by reverence ; insomuch, that when her 
friends sorrowed for her death, which arrived at a late 
period of her existence, they were comforted by the fond 
reflection, that the humanity which she then laid down, 
was the only circumstance which had placed her, in the 
worcts of Scripture, “ a little lower than the angels !’’ 


jrOTES TO THE PIRATE 


I Page 12. The Admiral of the Spanish Armada was wrecked on the 
Fair Isle, half-waj^ betwixt the Orkney and Zetland Archipelago. Tlie 
puKe of Medina Sidonia landed, with some of his people, and pillaged the 
islanders of their winter stores. These strangers are remembered as having 
remained on the island by force, and on bad terms with the inhabitants, tm 
spring returned, when they effected their escape. 

2. Page 14. Galdra-Kinna — theNorse for a sorceress. 

3. Page 16. The author has in the preceding chapter supposed that a 
very ancient northern custom, used by those who were accounted soothsay- 
ing women, might have survived, though in jest rather than earnest, among 
the Zetlauders, their descendants. The following original account of such a 
scene will show the ancient importance and consequence of such a prophetic 
character as was assumed by Norna : — 

There lived in the same territory (Greenland ) a woman named Thorbi- 
orga, who was a prophetess, and calleu the little Vola, (or fatal sister,) the 
only one of nine sisters who survived. Thorbiorga during tlie winter used to 
frequent the festivities of the season, invited by those who were desirous of 
learning their own fortune, and the future events which impended. Torquil 
being a man of consequence in the country, it fell to his lot to inquire how 
long the dearth was to endure with w'hich the country was then afflicted j he 
therefore invited the propJietess to his house, having made liberal prepara- 
tion, as was the custom, for receiving a guest of such consequence. I'he 
seat of tho soothsayer was placed in an eminent situation, and covered with 
pillows filled with the softest eider down. In the evening she arrived, to- 
gether with a person who had been sent to meet her, and show her the way 
to TorquiFs habitation. She was attired as follows : She had a sky-blue 
tunick, having the front ornamented with gems from the top to the bottom, 
and wore around her throat a necklace of glass beads.* Her head-gear was 
of black lambskin, the lining being the fur of a wliite w'ild-cat. She leant on 
a staff, having a ball at the top.f The staft' was ornamented with brass, and 
the ball or globe with gems or pebbles. She wore a Hunland (or Hungarian) 
girdle, to wliich was attached a large pouch, in which she kept her magical im- 
plements, Her shoes were of sealskin, dressed with the hair outside, and se 
cured by long and thick straps, fastened by brazen clasps. She wore gloves 
of the wild-caFs skin, with the fur inmost. As this ventrable person entered 
llie hall, all saluted her with due respect ; but she only feturned the compli 


* VVe may suppose the beads to have been of the potent adderstone, U 
which so many virtues were ascribed. 

f Like those anciently ^orne by porters at the gates of distinguished pet 
sons as a badge of office. 

VOL. II. 


270 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE 


orients of su< h as were affreeable to her. Torquil conducted her Avith rever- 
ence to the seat prepared for her, and requested she would purify the apart- 
ment and company assembled, by casting- her eyes over them. She was by 
no means sparing of her words. The table being at length cov'ered, such 
viands w-ere placed before Thorbiorga as suited her character of a soothsay- 
er. These were, a preparation of goat’s milk, and a mess composed of Ire 
hearts of v'arious animals ; the prophetess made use of ah’s spoon, and 
a pointless knife, the handle of winch was composed of a winuie’s tooth, and 
ornamented -w'ith two rings of brass. The table being removed, Torquil ad- 
dressed Thorbiorga, requesting her opinion of his house and guests, at the 
same time intimating the subjects on which he and the company were desir- 
ous to consult her. 

Tliorbiorga replied, it was impossible for her to answer their inquiries 
until she had slept a night under his roof. The next morning, therefore, the 
magical apparatus necessary for her purpose was prepared, and sre tneii in- 
quired, as a necessary part of the ceremony, whether there was any lemalc 
present who could sing a magical song called ‘ Vardlokur’ When no song- 
stress such as she desired could be found, Gudrida, the daughter of Torquil, 
replied, ‘ I am no sorceress or soothsayer 5 but my nurse, Haldisa. taught me, 
when in Iceland, a song called VardlokurJ^‘ Then thou knowest more than 
I w'as aware of,’ said Torquil. ‘ But as I am a Christian,’ continued Gudri- 
da, ‘ I consider these rites as matters which it is unlawful to promote, and the 
song itself as unlawful .’ — ‘ Nevertheless,’ answered the soothsayer, ‘ thou 
mayest help us in this matter without any harm to thy religion, since the task 
will remain with Torquil to provide every thing necessary for the present 
purpose.’ Torquil also earnestly entreated Gudrida, till she consented to 
grant his request. The females then surrounded Thorbiorga, who took her 
place on a sort of elevated stage ; Gudrida then sung the magic song, w-ith a 
voice so sweet and tuneful, as to excel any thing that had been heard by any 
present. The soothsayer, delighted with the melody, returned thanks to the 
singer, and then said, ^ Much I have now learned of dearth and disease ap- 
proaching the country, and many things are now clear to me which beibre 
were hidden as well from me as others. Our present dearth of substance 
shall not long endure for the present, and plenty will in the spring succeed to 
scarcity. The contagious diseases also, with which the country has been for 
some time afflicted, will in a short lime take their departure. To thee, Gu- 
drida, I can, in recompense for thy assistance on this occasion, announce a 
fortune of higher import than any one could have conjectured. You shall be 
married to a man ot name here in Greenland ; but you shall not long enjoy 
that union, for your fate recalls you to Iceland, where you shall become the 
mother of a numerous and honourable family, which shall be enlightened by 
a luminous ray of good fortune. So, my daughter, wishing thee health, I bid 
thee farewell.’ The prophetess, havi^ afterwards given answers to all que- 
ries which were put to her, either by Torquil or his guests, departed to show 
her skill at another festival, to which she had been invited for that purpose. 
But all which she had presaged, either concerning the public or individuals, 
came truly to pass.” 

The above narrative is taken from the Saga of Erick Randa, as quoted by 
the learned Bartholine in his curious work. He mentions similar instances, 
particularly of one Heida, celebrated for her predictions, who attended festi- 
vals for the purpose, as a modern Scotsman might say, of spaeing fortunes, 
with a gallant tail, or retinue, of thirty male and fifteen female attendants.-— 
See De Causis Contemptce a Danis adhuc gentilibus Mortis, lib. III., cap. 4. 

4. Page 27. Although the Father of Scandinavian mythology has been 
H-s a deity long forgotten in the archipelago, which was once a very small 
uari of his realrn, yet even at this day his name continues to be occasionally 
Attested as security for a promise. 

It is curious to observe, that the rites with which such attestations are still 
made in Orkney, a>rrespond to those of the ancient Northmen. It appears 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE 


271 


from several authorities, that in the Norse ritual, when an oath was imposed, 
■ he by whom it was pledged, passed his hand, while pronouncing it, through 
a massive ring of silver kept for that purpose.* In like manner, two persons, 
generally lovers, desirous to take the promise of Odin, which they consider- 
ed as peculiarly binding, joined hands through a circular hole in a sacrificial 
stone, which lies in the Orcadian Stonehenge, called the Circle ofStennis, of 
which we shall speak more hereafter. The ceremony is now confined to the 
troth-plighting of the lower classes, but at an earlier period may be supposed 
to have influenced a character like Minna in the higher ranks. 

5. Page 30. An elder brother, now no more, who was educated in the 
navy, and had been a midshipman in Rodney’s squadron in the West Indies, 
used to astonish the author’s boyhood with tales of those haunted islets. On 
one of them, called, I believe, Coffinkey, the seamen positively refused to 
pass the night, and came off every evening w’hile they were engaged in com- 
pleting the watering of the vessel, returning the following sunrise. 

6. Page 39. I cannot suppress the pride of saj'ing, that these lines have 
been beautifully set to original music, by Mrs. Arkwright, of Derbyshire. 

7. Page 42. The celebrated Sortes Virgilianse were resorted to bv 
Charles I. and his courtiers, as a mode of prying into futurity. 

8. Page 71. It is worth while saying, that this motto, and the ascription of 
the beautiful ballad from which it is taken to the Right Honourable Lady 
Ann Lindsay^ occasioned the ingenious authoress’s acknowledgment of the 
ballad, of which the Editor, by her permission, published a small impression, 
inscribed to the Bannatyne Club. 

9. Page 83. The Pictish Burgh, a fort which Noma is supposed to have 
converted into her dwelling-house, has been fully described in the Notes [14] 
upon Ivanhoe, vol. ii. p. 284, of this edition. An account of the celebrated 
Castle of Mousa is there given, to afford am opportunity of comparing it with 
the Saxon Castle of Coningsburgh. It should, however, have been mentioned, 
that the Castle of Mousa underwent considerable repairs at a comparatively 
recent period. Accordingly, Torfaeus assures us, that even *Ms ancient pig- 
eon-house, composed of dry stones, was fortification enougn, not indeed to 
hold out a ten years’ siege, like Troy in similar circumstances, but to wear 
out the patience of the besiegers. Erland, the son of Harold the Fair-spok 
en, had carried off a beautiful woman, the mother of a Norwegian earl, also 
called Harold, and sheltered himself with his fair prize in the Ccistle of Mou 
sa. Earl Harold followed with an army, and, finding the place too strong 
for assault, endeavored to reduce it by famine j but such was the length of 
the siege, that the offended Earl found it necessary to listen to a treaty of ac- 
commodation, and agreed that his mother’s honour should be restored by 
marriage. This transaction took place in the beginning of the thirteenth 
century, in the reign of William the Lion of Scotland.] It is probable that 
the improvements adopted by Erland on this occasion, were those which fin- 
ished the parapet of the castle, by making it project outwards, so that the 
tower of Mousa rather resembles the figure of a dice-box, whereas others of 
the same kind have the form of a truncated cone. It is easy to see how the 
projection of the highest parapet would render the defence more easy and ef- 
fectual. 

lU. Page 91. The MacRaws were followers of the MacKenzies, whoso 
thief has the name of Caberfae, or Buckshead, from the cognisance borne oo 


* See the Eyrbiggia Saga, 
t See 'rorfa'i Orcadiis, p. 131 


272 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE 


his standards. Unquestionably the worthy piper trained the seal on the same 
principle of respect to tlie clan-term which I hav^e heard has been taught to 
dogs, who, unused to any other air, dance after their fashion to the tune o. 
Caberfae. 

1 1. Page 100. The spells described in the chapter are not altogether im 
aginary. By this mode of pouring lead into water, and selecting the part 
wliich chances to assume a resemblance to the human heart, which must be 
Worn by the patient around her or his neck, the sage persons of Zet and pre- 
tend to cure the fatal disorder called the loss of a heart. 

12. Page 112. Jokul, yes, sir j a Norse expression, still in corhmon use. 

13. Page 112. The Bicker of Saint Magnus, a vessel of enormous di- 
mensions, was preserved at Kirkwall, and presented to each bishop of the 
Orkneys. If the new incumbent was able to quaff it out at one draught, 
which w’as a task for Hercules or llorie JMhor of Uunvegcin, the omen boded 
a crop of unusual fertility. 

14. Page 113. Luggie, a famous conjurer, was wont, when storms pre- 
vented him from going to his usual employment of fishing, to angle over a 
steep rock, at the place called, from his name, Luggie’s Knoll. At other 
times he drew up dressed food while they were out at sea, of which his com- 
rades partook boldly from natural courage, without caring who stood cook. 
The poor man was finally condemned and burnt at Scalloway. 

15. Page 116. While these sheets were passing through the press, I re- 
ceived a letter from an honourable and learned friend, containing the following 
passage, relating to a discovery in Zetland : — “ Within a few w'eeks, the 
workmen taking up the foundation of an old wall, came on a hearth-stone, 
under which they found a horn, surrounded with massive silver rings, like 
bracelets, and filled with coins of the Heptarchy, in perfect preservation. 
The place of finding is within a very short distance of the [supposed] resi 
dence of Norna of the Fitful-head.'’— Thus one of the very improbable fic- 
tions of the tale is verified by a singular coincidence. 

16. Page 117. Young uubroke horse. 

17. Page 122. In Gaelic, there. 

18. Page 131. It is very cunous that the grouse, plenty in Orkney as the 
text declares, should be totally unknown in the neighbouring archipelago of 
Zetland, which is only about sixty miles distance, with the Fair Isle as a step 
between. 

19. Page 156. See an explanation of this promise, Note 4, p. 270, of this 
volume. 

20. Page 159. The character of Noma is meant lobe an instance of that 
singular kind of insanity, during which the patient, while she or he retains 
much subtlety and address lor the power of imposing upon others, is still 
more ingenious in endeavouring to impose upon themselves. Indeed, maniacs 
of this kind may be often observed to possess a sort of double character, in 
one of which they are the being whom their distempered imagination shapes 
nut, and in the other, their own natural self, as seen to exist by other people. 
This species of double consciousness makes wild work with the patient’s im- 
agination, and, judiciously used, is perhaps a frequent means of restoring san- 
ty of intellect. Exterior circumstances striking the senses, often have a 
nowerful effect in undermining or battering the airy castles wiidi the disor 
4er has excited 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE 


273 


A late medical ffentlemen, my particular friend, told me the case of a luna- 
dc patient confined in the Edinburgh Infirmary. He was so far happy that his 
mental alienation was of a gay and pleasant character, giving a kind of joy- 
ous explanation to all that came in contact with him. He considered the 
arge house, numerous servants, &c., of the hospital, as all matters of state 
and consequence belonging to his own personal establishment, and had no 
doubt of his own wealth and grandeur. One thing alone puzzled this man ol 
wealth. Although he was provided with a first-rate cook and proper assis- 
tants, although his table was regularly supplied with every delicacy of the 
season, yet he confessed to my iriend, that by some uncommon depravity of 
ihe palate, every tiling which he ate tasted of porridge. This peculiarity, of 
course, arose from the poor man being fed upon nothing else, and because 
his stomach was not so easily deceived as his other senses. 

21. Page 160. So favourable a retreat does the island of Hoy afford for 
birds of prey, that instances of their ravages, which seldom occur in other 
parts of the country, are not unusual there. An individual was living in Ork- 
ney not long since, whom, while a child in its swaddling clothes, an eagle ac- 
tually transported to its nest m the hill of Hoy. Happily the eyry being 
known, and the bird insteuiUj pursued, the cnild was found uninjured, play- 
ing with the young eagles. A story of a more ludicrous transportation was 
told me by the reverend clergyman who is minister of the island. Hearing 
one day a strange grunting, he suspected his servants had permitted a sow 
and pigs, w'hich were tenants of his farm-yard, to get among his barley crop. 
Having in vain looked for the transgressors ujion solid earth, he at length cast 
his eyes upward, when he discovered one of the litter in the talons of* a large 
eagle, which was soaring away with the unfortunate pig (squeaking all the 
while with terror) towards her nest in the crest of Hoy. 

22. Page 166. This was really an exploit of the celebrated Avery the pi- 
rate, vvho suddenly^ and w'ithout provocation, fired his pistols under the table 
where he sat drinking with his messmates, wounded one man severely, and 
thought the matter a good jest. What is still more extraordinary, his crew 
regarded it in the same light. 

23. Page 192. Liquor brewed for a Christmas treat. 

24. Page 224. The Standing Stones of Stennis, as by a little pleonasm 
this remarkable monument is termed, furnishes an irresistible refutation of the 
opinion of such antiquaries as hold that the circles usually called Druidical, 
were peculiar to that race of priests. There is every reason to believe, that 
the custom was as prevalent in Scandinavia as in Gaul or Britain, and as 
common to the mythology of Odin as to Druidical superstition. There is 
even reason to think, that the Druids never occupied any part of the Ork- 
neys, and tradition, as well as history, ascribes the Stones of Stennis to the 
Scandinavians. Two large sheets of water, communicating with the sea, are 
connected by a causeway, with openings permitting the fide to rise and re- 
cede, which is called the Bridge of Broisgar. Upon the eastern tong.ie of 
land appear the Standing Stones, arranged in the form of a half circ,,'t, or 
rather a horse-shoe, the height of the pillars being fifteen feet and upwards. 
Within this circle lies a stone, probably sacrificial. One of the pillars, a little 
lo the westward, is perforated with a circular hole, through which loving cou- 
ples are wont to join hands when they take the Promise of Odin, as has been 
repeatedly mentioned in the text. The enclosure is surrounded by barrows, 
and on the opposite isthmus, advancing towards the Bridge of Broisgar, 
there is another monument of Standing Stones, which, in this case, is com- 

E ' ‘ :»ly circular. They are less in size than those on the eastern side of the 
. their height running only from ten or twelve to fourteen feet. This westeru 
circle is surrounded by a deep trench drawn on the outside of the pillars, 


274 


NOTES TO THE PIRATE. 


and I remarked four tumuli, or mounds of earth, regularly disposed around it 
Stonehenge excels this Orcadian monument ; but that of Stennis is, 1 con* 
ceive, the only one in Britain which caji be said to approach it in consequence. 
All the northern nations marked by those huge enclosures the places of pop- 
ular meeting, either for religious worship or the transaction of public business 
of a temporal nature. The Northern Popid. * '' Antiquities contain, in an ab- 
stract of the Eyrbiggia Saga, a particular account of the manner in which the 
Jlelga Pels, or Holy Rock, was set apart by the Pontiff Tborolf for solemn 
occasions. 

I need only add, that, different from the monument on Salisbury Plain, the 
stones which were used in the Orcadian circle seem to have been raised 
from a quarry upon the spot, of which the marks are visible. 


END OF THE PIRATE 






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